Superconductivity between standard types: Multiband versus single-band materials

Abstract

In the nearest vicinity of the critical temperature, types I and II of conventional single-band superconductors interchange at the Ginzburg-Landau parameter $\ensuremath{\kappa}=1/\sqrt{2}$. At lower temperatures this point unfolds into a narrow but finite interval of $\ensuremath{\kappa}$'s, shaping an intertype (transitional) domain in the $(\ensuremath{\kappa},T)$ plane. In the present work, based on the extended Ginzburg-Landau formalism, we show that the same picture of the two standard types with the transitional domain in between applies also to multiband superconductors. However, the intertype domain notably widens in the presence of multiple bands and can become extremely large when the system has a significant disparity between the band parameters. It is concluded that many multiband superconductors, such as recently discovered borides and iron-based materials, can belong to the intertype regime.