Fluctuations in two-band superconductors in strong magnetic field

Abstract

We consider the behavior of the fluctuating specific heat and conductivity in the vicinity of the upper critical field line for a two-band superconductor. Multiple-band effects are pronounced when the bands have very different coherence lengths. The transition to superconductive state is mainly determined by the properties of the rigid condensate of the ‘strong’ band, while the ‘weak’ band with a large coherence length of the Cooper pairs causes the nonlocality in fluctuation behavior and break down of the simple Ginzburg–Landau picture. As expected, the multiple-band electronic structure does not change the functional forms of dominating divergencies of the fluctuating corrections when the magnetic field approaches the upper critical field. The temperature dependence of the coefficients, however, is modified. The large in-plane coherence length sets the field scale at which the upper critical field has upward curvature. The amplitude of fluctuations and fluctuation width enhances at this field scale due to reduction of the effective z-axis coherence length. We also observe that the apparent transport transition displaces to lower temperatures with respect to the thermodynamic transition. Even though this effect exists already in a single-band case at sufficiently high fields, it may be strongly enhanced in multiband materials.