Modulating Superconductivity with Metamaterial Plasmonic Structures – Theory

In 1972, Kirzhnits et al. reformulated the BCS superconductivity theory in terms of a dielectric response function¹. The conclusion of this theory was that the strength of the Cooper pairings can be controlled by the dielectric environment. A demonstration of this effect was recently given in a metamaterial composite made of Al nanoparticles², designed to have suppressed dielectric function at the Eliashberg function maximum, leading to threefold increase of superconductivity critical temperature. In this work, we have studied theoretically, two-dimensional Babinet metamaterials made of Pb, properly designed to have the Cooper pairing strength systematically controlled (enhanced or suppressed). This work, has been coupled to the parallel effort to obtain experimental confirmation of these effects.

¹A. Kirzhnits et al, J. Low Temp. Phys., 10, 79-93 (1973).
²V. N. Smolyaninova et al., Sci. Rep., 4, 7321 (2015).