The Debye Mechanism in Superconductors

Abstract

This thesis will study a new mechanism of charge transport in various types of superconductors, the Debye mechanism. This mechanism gives rise to a conductivity that is controlled by the \emph{inelastic} relaxation time, $\tau_{in}$. Conventionally, the conductivity is controlled by the \emph{elastic} relaxation time, $\tau_{el}$, which is typically much smaller than the inelastic relaxation time. Thus, the Debye mechanism can provide the dominant contribution to the conductivity. This thesis will introduce the Debye mechanism and how it contributes to the linear and non-linear conductivities in bulk S-wave superconductors, in both the clean and dirty limits and at high and low temperatures, the linear conductivity of bulk D-wave superconductors with and without impurity scattering, and at high and low temperatures, the flux flow conductivity in type-II superconductors, and the linear conductivity of non-centrosymmetric superconductors.