Mutual influence of structural distortion and superconductivity in systems with degenerate bands
Abstract The interplay between the band Jahn-Teller distortion and the superconductivity is studied for the system whose Fermi level lies in two-fold degenerate band. Assuming that the lattice distortion is coupled to the orbital electron density and the superconductivity arises due to BCS pairing mechanism between the electrons, the phase diagram is obtained for different doping with respect to half-filled band situation. The coexistence phase of superconductivity and distortion occurs within limited range of doping and the distortion lowers the superconducting transition temperature Tc. In presence of strong electron-lattice interaction the lattice strain is found to be maximum at half-filling and superconductivity does not appear for low doping. The maximum value of Tc obtainable for an optimum doping is limited by structural transition temperature Ts. The growth of distortion is arrested with the onset of superconductivity and the distortion is found to disappear at lower temperature for some hole density. Such arresting of the growth of distortion at Tc produces discontinuous jump in thermal expansion coefficient. The variation of strain with temperature as well as with doping, thermal expansion coefficient, the Tc vs δ behaviour are in qualitative agreement with recent experimental observations on interplay of distortion and superconductivity in cuprates.