Low temperature quasiparticle transport in d-wave superconductors

Experiments have now established that the order parameter (gap) in the high-Tc cuprate superconductors exhibits d-wave symmetry, vanishing at four nodal points on the Fermi surface. Near each of these four gap nodes, quasiparticles are easily excited and behave more like massless relativistic particles than electrons in a metal. In this thesis, we study the transport properties of these nodal quasiparticles, providing theoretical interpretations for the results of low temperature thermal and (microwave) electrical transport experiments in the cuprates. We begin by considering the very low temperature regime in which transport is dominated by quasiparticles induced by the very presence of impurities. This is known as the universal limit because prior calculations indicate that the transport coefficients obtain universal (scattering-independent) values. We improve upon prior results by including the contribution of vertex corrections and find that while the electrical conductivity obtains a scattering-dependent correction, the thermal and spin conductivity maintain their universal values.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• Durst, Adam Craig, 1974-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Patrick A. Lee.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/29305

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/29305