Quasiparticle thermal conductivity in the vortex state of high-T$_c$ cuprates

TL;DR

This paper presents a microscopic calculation of the thermal conductivity in high-Tc cuprates' vortex state, revealing field-dependent behaviors consistent with experiments and exploring the influence of the superconducting gap slope.

Contribution

It provides a detailed theoretical analysis of thermal conductivity in d-wave superconductors under magnetic fields, connecting microscopic properties to observable thermal transport phenomena.

Findings

Thermal conductivity increases with magnetic field at low temperatures.

At higher temperatures, $$ decreases and becomes nearly field-independent.

Results qualitatively agree with experimental measurements.

Abstract

We present the results of a microscopic calculation of the longitudinal thermal conductivity, $\kappa$, of a d-wave superconductor in the mixed state. Our results show an increase in the thermal conductivity with the applied field at low temperatures, and a decrease followed by a nearly field independent $\kappa(H)$ at higher temperatures, in qualitative agreement with the experimental results. We discuss the relationship between the slope of the superconducting gap and the plateau in $\kappa(H)$.