Superconducting phenomenology of cuprates: effect of pseudo-gap and other anomalies

Abstract

This paper discusses new aspects of the superconducting phenomenology of the cuprate high- T c superconductors in terms of the change in superconducting condensation energy and the electronic states in the vortex core due to the extreme phenomenological parameters, the d-wave superconducting gap and the presence of the `pseudo-gap' in the normal state. It is shown that the extreme phenomenological parameters and the d-wave superconducting gap make the vortex state of high- T c superconductors quite different from that of conventional superconductors in many aspects both thermodynamically and dynamically. Further, we show that the presence of the `pseudo-gap' should reduce the condensation energy and increase the penetration depth. The effect of the `pseudo-gap' on the vortex pinning is discussed in relation to the empirical scaling laws observed in the phase diagram in the mixed state.