Pairing in two dimensions and possible consequences for superconductivity: extension of Cooper's approach

Abstract

Relation between the binding energy of a pair of electrons in Cooper's configuration and the magnitude of the attractive interaction between them is investigated theoretically for a two-dimensional electron gas when the electron pair has (a) zero and (b) finite center of mass momentum (CMM) first (i) in the background of a passive Fermi sea and (ii) with inclusion of the effect of Pauli exclusion principle in the presence of an active Fermi sea, at zero temperature. In the Cooper's approach (Cooper 1956 Phys. Rev. 104 1189) two pairing electrons are considered above the Fermi sea. Due to Pauli exclusion principle, these two electrons are forbidden to go into the states whose energies are less than the Fermi energy. Consequently, the role of the electrons which form the Fermi sea is passive in formation of electron pair (Fujita and Godoy 2001 Theory of High Temperature Superconductivity (Kluwer Academic Publishers)). However, in the case of an active Fermi sea, implying possible presence of multiple pairs of electrons coming out of the Fermi sea, the two electrons will have less available region in the momentum space for pair formation due to the Pauli blocking effect. In both the situations, threshold values of attractive interaction are found to exist to bind the electrons having finite CMM even with respect to the Fermi energy while with arbitrarily small value of attractive interaction they can be bound only in the case of zero CMM and that too in the presence of a passive Fermi sea. However, the presence of an active Fermi sea strongly opposes the pair formation having lower CMM. Furthermore, raising the range of the attractive interaction below and above the Fermi surface makes the pair formation more difficult due to enhanced Pauli blocking in this case. In the case of a passive Fermi sea however, with the increase in the range of the attractive interaction it becomes easier for the electron pairs to be in both Cooper pair state (CP) and true bound state (TB). These results are totally distinct from those obtained by Randeria et al (1989 Phys. Rev. Lett. 62 981, 1990 Phys. Rev. B 41 327) that a fermionic bound state in true vacuum is a necessary and sufficient condition for the Cooper pairing instability in the presence of a passive Fermi sea, independent of attractive interaction strength implying that for a potential which is attractive everywhere in two dimension, a two-body bound state exists for an arbitrarily weak attraction. Our calculations show, in the mean field approximation, that co-existence of TB state and CP state with various CMMs can occur only beyond a critical attractive interaction strength. This could lead to the formation of incoherent pairs even under strong coupling situation, which may hint onto the pseudo gap formation leading to some of the exotic features in the anomalous normal state seen in some of the exotic superconductors.