Vortex state in d-wave superconductors with strong paramagnetism: transport and specific heat anisotropy

Abstract

We analyse the combined effect of orbital and Pauli depairing on the superconducting state, and apply the results to the heavy fermion CeCoIn$_5$. We find that: a) standard extrapolation based on the slope of $H_{c2}(T)$ in the vicinity of the transition temperature to T=0 does not always give accurate values of the orbital upper critical field; b) critical value of the Maki parameter, $\alpha$, that determines onset of the first order transition depends on the Fermi surface shape and the symmetry of the gap, and is $\alpha^*\approx 3$ for CeCoIn$_5$; c) the anisotropy of the thermodynamic and transport coefficients in the low-temperature, low-field part of the phase diagram is essentially insensitive to the Zeeman field and can be used to determine the nodal directions in Pauli-limited superconductors. The latter result confirms the finding of the $d_{x^2-y^2}$ order parameter CeCoIn$_5$.