Abstract
The frequency dependence of the imaginary part of the infrared conductivity is calculated for a superconductor. Sharp structure, characteristic of superconductivity with an order parameter with -wave symmetry, appears in the BCS limit as a minimum at a frequency equal to twice the gap value. This structure scales with temperature but gets progressively smeared and shifted as impurity scattering is increased. The relationship between low-frequency results and the zero-frequency limit is investigated. Experimental results on are also presented. The low-frequency imaginary part of the conductivity displays a minimum at meV, and provides unequivocal evidence of an -wave superconducting order parameter. Strong-coupling (Eliashberg) results show similar trends. Using this formulation we find that the electron-phonon coupling in must necessarily be small, with coupling constant , in agreement with conclusions drawn from measurements of the real part of the conductivity. Thus is an -wave superconductor that is not driven by the conventional electron-phonon interaction.
- Received 28 August 1995
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.53.9433
©1996 American Physical Society