Acoustic Attenuation in High-$T_c$ Superconductors

TL;DR

This paper explores how acoustic attenuation measurements can be used to analyze the anisotropy of the superconducting order parameter in high-$T_c$ superconductors, providing a new experimental approach.

Contribution

It introduces a method to distinguish electronic and lattice contributions to acoustic attenuation, aiding in measuring order parameter anisotropy.

Findings

Electronic contribution shows strong temperature dependence near $T_c$

Lattice contribution remains relatively temperature independent near $T_c$

Proposes directional measurements of attenuation to determine anisotropy

Abstract

We analyze the acoustic attenuation rate in high-$T_c$ superconductors, and find that this method offers an additional way to examine the anisotropy of the superconducting order parameter in these materials. We argue that it should be possible to distinguish the electronic contribution to the acoustic attenuation, which has a strong temperature dependence near $T_c$, from the lattice contribution, which does not show a strong temperature dependence near $T_c$. We propose that this can be utilized to measure the anisotropy of the order parameter by measuring the attenuation rate near $T_c$ in different directions.