Effect of an electric field on the surface superconductivity

Abstract

We discuss an effect of the electrostatic field on superconductivity near the surface. First, we use the microscopic theory of de Gennes to show that the electric field changes the boundary condition for the Ginzburg-Landau function. Second, the effect of the electric field is evaluated in the vicinity of $H_{\rm c3}$, where the boundary condition plays a crucial role. We predict that the field effect on the surface superconductivity leads to a discontinuity of the magnetocapacitance. We estimate that the predicted discontinuity is accessible for nowadays experimental tools and materials. It is shown that the magnitude of this discontinuity can be used to predict the dependence of the critical temperature on the charge carrier density which can be tailored by doping.