Theory of a large thermoeffect in superconductors doped with magnetic impurities

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical analysis predicting a significant enhancement of thermoelectric effects in superconductors doped with magnetic impurities, due to symmetry breaking caused by subgap bound states.

Contribution

The authors develop a quantitative theory explaining how magnetic impurities induce strong thermoelectric effects in superconductors, a novel insight into impurity-induced phenomena.

Findings

Enhanced thermoelectric current predicted in doped superconductors

Formation of subgap Andreev bound states causes symmetry violation

The effect is detectable with current experimental techniques

Abstract

We argue that parametrically strong enhancement of a thermoelectric current can be observed in conventional superconductors doped by magnetic impurities. This effect is caused by violation of the symmetry between electron-like and hole-like excitations due to formation of subgap Andreev bound states in the vicinity of magnetic impurities. We develop a quantitative theory of this effect and demonstrate that it can be detected in modern experiments.