Atomic disorder and superconductivity in A15 materials

The validity of a modified linear chain model for describing the properties of A15 superconductors is discussed in detail. Using this simple model for the electronic density of states, we calculate the critical temperature and the Fermi level as functions of atomic disorder with concentration c within the framework of the BCS theory. Thereby the experimentally observed saturation effect of the critical temperature is reproduced by taking into account the contribution of three-dimensional electronic states. The microscopic versions of the Ginzburg-Landau equations for systems with a strongly varying electronic density of states and a strongly varying electron velocity are derived for clean and dirty superconductors in order to calculate the Ginzburg-Landau parameter, the coherence length, the penetration depth, and the upper critical field as functions of atomic disorder. It is shown that these quantities depend strongly on the values inserted for the mean free electron path 1(c). Good agreement between theoretical and experimental results is obtained by an appropriate choice of 1(c). In contrast, the thermodynamic critical field is nearly independent of 1(c). In all cases we derive a depression of the pinning forces and the critical current densities with increasing atomic disorder in good agreement with the experiments.