A scenario for the critical fluctuations near the transition of few-bilayer films of high-temperature cuprate superconductors

TL;DR

This paper models the critical fluctuations in very thin high-temperature cuprate superconductor films with a few bilayers, providing a theoretical scenario consistent with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a Gaussian-Ginzburg-Landau model for few-bilayer superconductors with alternating Josephson interactions, extending analysis below the transition.

Findings

The model reproduces the critical regime observed in experiments.

It predicts the paraconductivity above the transition temperature.

Provides a plausible scenario for the critical fluctuations in few-bilayer systems.

Abstract

We study the critical fluctuations near the resistive transition of very thin films of high-temperature cuprate superconductors composed of a number $N$ of only a few unit cells of superconducting bilayers. For that, we solve the fluctuation spectrum of a Gaussian-Ginzburg-Landau model for few-bilayers superconductors considering two alternating Josephson interlayer interaction strengths, and we obtain the corresponding paraconductivity above the transition. Then, we extend these calculations to temperatures below the transition through expressions for the Ginzburg number and Kosterlitz--Thouless-like critical region. When compared with previously available data in YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-\delta}$ few-bilayers systems, with $N=1$ to $4$, our results seem to provide a plausible scenario for their critical regime.