Transport phenomena in superconductors
Abstract
Even though numerous experiments have shown that the conventional thermoelectric effects are absent in the superconducting state, the observation that a temperature gradient produces a thermal diffusion current of quasiparticle excitations (Ginzburg, 1944) rekindled interest in the subject. In 1980 Van Harlingen et al. measured the thermoelectric flux which appears in bimetallic superconducting rings when a small temperature difference is applied at the junctions. The flux was five orders of magnitude larger than the theoretical prediction (Gal'perin, 1974). Furthermore, the temperature dependence was different than expected. We have solved this discrepancy by reformulating transport theory in a superconductor. This original approach leads to a result comparable in magnitude and temperature dependence with the experimental observations. In conjunction with the analysis of the thermoelectric flux problem, we have found a derivation of the free energy density for an inhomogeneous superconductor near $T\sb{c}$.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Overhauser, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Condensation|Electromagnetism
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