RELAXATION OF THE SUPERCONDUCTING ORDER PARAMETER.
Abstract
The report considers the non-equilibrium behaviour of a pure type I superconductor and takes into account the effects of the electron-phonon interaction. The formulation is based on Kadanoff-Baym transport equations suitably generalized to the case of superconductors. In order to investigate the relaxation behaviour of the order parameter due to real phonon transitions, we solve the transport equations in the spatially homogeneous case when there is a slow time variation of the energy gap function. We solve the transport equations treating the real phonon transitions in the weakest possible way, much in the spirit of the BRT transport equation used in the treatment of thermal conductivity. We discuss in detail, however, why the BRT equation fails in this case, and in general when there is a time variation of the order parameter. For weak coupling materials we find that within .9 T sub c, the gap relaxation rate (10 to the 8th power to 10 to the 9th power/sec) is about an order of magnitude slower than the quasiparticle decay rate but that very close to T sub c it disappears as T-T sub c.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 14, 1967
- Accession Number
- AD0663463
Entities
People
- Elihu Abrahams
- James W. F. Woo
Organizations
- Rutgers University–New Brunswick