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Leggett, Anthony J. Kosztin, Ioan 2012-04-19T21:30:36Z 2012-04-19T21:30:36Z 10000-01-01 1997 This thesis contains three independent parts on three different topics in theory of superconductivity. In the first part a theory of nonlocal electrodynamics of unconventional superconductors is developed and applied to calculate the magnetic penetration depth in the Meissner state for a simple d-wave model of the cuprate high temperature superconductors. We find that in the clean limit, contrary to the general belief, below a certain crossover temperature, the temperature dependence of the penetration depth is quadratic and not linear. The interplay between nonlocal effects on one hand and impurities, surface quality of the sample and crystal axes orientation on the other hand is discussed in detail. Also, a simple experiment to test the viability of our theory is proposed. In the second part a new method for calculating the free energy of an inhomogeneous superconductor is presented. This method is based entirely on the wave function formulation of the theory of weakly coupled superconductors. We find that, under certain conditions, both the local density of states and the free energy of an inhomogeneous superconductor can be expressed in terms of the resolvent of a supersymmetric Hamiltonian corresponding to an effective one-dimensional Schrodinger like equation, resolvent which obeys the so-called Gelfand-Dikii equation. These results are used to formulate general conditions under which the free energy can be evaluated analytically and to derive a gradient expansion of the free energy at arbitrary temperatures. Finally, in the third part we study a new class of superconducting mesoscopic devices, known as Andreev billiards, which consist of a normal region surrounded by a superconducting region. The classical mechanics of Andreev billiards is investigated by employing the tangent map technique, and general conditions under which these systems become chaotic are formulated and demonstrated. Also, the issue of the feasibility of certain experimental realizations of these systems is addressed. Submitted by William Weathers (weathrs2@illinois.edu) on 2012-04-19T21:30:36Z No. of bitstreams: 1 1997_kosztin.pdf: 4463872 bytes, checksum: 67d793de1bdb9a1cd2b3a41c9265572e (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2012-04-19T21:30:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 1997_kosztin.pdf: 4463872 bytes, checksum: 67d793de1bdb9a1cd2b3a41c9265572e (MD5) Previous issue date: 1997 Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by William Weathers (weathrs2@illinois.edu) on 2012-04-19T21:30:36Z Item is restricted indefinitely. Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:10:36-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: none Reason: Thesis Thesis U of I Only http://hdl.handle.net/2142/30702 4052599 en ©1997 Kosztin superconductivity cuprate superconductors inhomogeneous superconductor Andreev billiards Topics in theory of superconductivity Dissertation / Thesis text Physics Physics University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Dissertation Ph.D.