Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory of finite-size superconducting metallic grains

Abstract

We study finite-size effects in superconducting metallic grains and determine the BCS order parameter and the low energy excitation spectrum in terms of the size and shape of the grain. Our approach combines the BCS self-consistency condition, a semiclassical expansion for the spectral density and interaction matrix elements, and corrections to the BCS mean field. In chaotic grains mesoscopic fluctuations of the matrix elements lead to a smooth dependence of the order parameter on the excitation energy. In the integrable case we observe shell effects when, e.g., a small change in the electron number leads to large changes in the energy gap. © 2008 The American Physical Society.