Abstract
A relativistic generalization of the Bogolubov-de Gennes equations is derived where the particle and hole amplitudes are Dirac spinors. In the weakly relativistic limit one obtains, besides the usual spin-orbit, Darwin and kinetic energy corrections, a new "spin-orbit" and a new "Darwin" term involving the pair potential in place of the electrostatic potential. The results indicate the significance of the relativistic corrections for superconductors with a high Fermi velocity, a small coherence length or heavy elements in the lattice.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 261-266 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Physics Letters, Section A: General, Atomic and Solid State Physics |
| Volume | 198 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 27 Feb 1995 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank M. Weger for a discussion which stimulated our interest in this project and B.L. Gyorffy and A.K. Rajagopal for very useful comments. Many valuable discussions with M. LiJders and M. Petersilka are gratefully acknowledged. This work was supported in part by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. One of us (E.K.U.G.) gratefully acknowledges the hospitality of Professor John Dobson and his group at Griffith University where part of this work was done under a DEET/ARC International Research Fellowship.