Theory of Nernst effect in high-Tc superconductors

Abstract

We calculated, using the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation with thermal noise, the transverse thermoelectric conductivity αxy and the Nernst signal eN, describing the Nernst effect, in type-II superconductor in the vortex-liquid regime. The Gaussian method used is an elaboration of the Hartree-Fock utilized by Ullah and Dorsey [Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 2066 (1990)]. An additional assumption often made in analytical calculations that only the lowest Landau level significantly contributes to physical quantities of interest in the high-field limit is lifted by including all the Landau levels. The resulting values in two dimensions are significantly lower than the numerical simulation data of the same model but are in reasonably good quantitative agreement with experimental data on La2SrCuO4 above the irreversibility line (below the irreversibility line at which αxy diverges and theory should be modified by including pinning effects). The values of eN calculated in three dimensions are also in good quantitative agreement with experimental data for temperature close to Tc on YBa2Cu3O7. For each of the materials we consider, the melting and the irreversibility lines are also fitted with the same set of parameters using a recent quantitative Ginzburg-Landau theory. © 2009 The American Physical Society.