Impurities in "Odd-Pairing" Superconductors

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how normal impurities affect odd-parity superconductors, showing they strongly suppress pairing and questioning the model's relevance for high-Tc cuprates.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical analysis of impurity effects in odd-parity superconductors, challenging the model's applicability to high-Tc materials.

Findings

Normal impurities strongly suppress odd-parity pairing.

Suppression is more severe than in traditional magnetic impurity cases.

High-Tc cuprates' stability against disorder makes this model unlikely.

Abstract

We present the results of theoretical analysis of normal impurities effects in superconductors with the gap being an odd function of k-k_{F}. This model proposed by Mila and Abrahams leads to the possibility of pairing in the presence of arbitrarily strong short-range repulsion between electrons and may be applied to high-Tc oxides.However, we demonstrate that normal impurities lead to rather strong suppression of this type of pairing, which is actually stronger than in the case of magnetic impurities in traditional superconductors. Relative stability of high-Tc cuprates to disordering makes this model a rather unlikely candidate for the pairing mechanism in these systems.