The purpose of this work is to discus the role that coupling between the CuO chains and CuO₂ planes in YBa₂Cu₃O₇ plays in the superconducting state. The important issue is the structure and magnitude of the superconducting gap in the chains. We discuss a simple pairing interaction -- in which a boson is exchanged between the planes and chains -- which leads to a gap in the chains that is larger than would be found in a simple proximity model of superconductivity. The interlayer pairing interaction has an s-wave symmetry which overwhelms the intrinsic d-wave gap in the planes when the interlayer interaction is large. The limitation that this imposes is important, as it restricts the size of gap in the chains. We compare this model with other models of interlayer pairing.

Date Published: 10 June 1996
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 2696, Spectroscopic Studies of Superconductors, (10 June 1996); doi: 10.1117/12.241789

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2696:
Spectroscopic Studies of Superconductors
Ivan Bozovic; Dirk van der Marel, Editor(s)