Effect of pair-breaking on superconductivity and on persistent currents well above ${\bf T_c}$

by Prof. Ora Entin-Wohlman (Ben Gurion University, Israel)

Wednesday 23 Dec 2009, 14:00 → 14:45 Asia/Kolkata

AG-66 (Colaba Campus)

We consider the mesoscopic normal persistent current (PC) in a very low-temperature superconductor with a bare transition temperature $T_{0c}$ much smaller than the Thouless energy $E_c$. We show that in a rather broad range of pair-breaking strength, $T_{0c} \lesssim \hbar/\tau_s \lesssim E_c$, the transition temperature is renormalized to zero, but the PC is hardly affected. This may provide an explanation for the magnitude of the average PC's in the noble metals, as well as a way to determine their $T_{0c}$'s. See also http://physics.aps.org/articles/v1/7