Theory of a large thermoelectric effect in superconductors doped with magnetic impurities

Phys Rev Lett. 2012 Oct 5;109(14):147004. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.147004. Epub 2012 Oct 4.

Abstract

We argue that parametrically strong enhancement of a thermoelectric current can be observed in conventional superconductors doped by magnetic impurities. This effect is caused by the violation of the symmetry between electronlike and holelike excitations due to formation of subgap bound Andreev states in the vicinity of magnetic impurities. We develop a quantitative theory of this effect and demonstrate that it can be detected in modern experiments.