On the determination of the quasiparticle scattering rate in unconventional superconductors by microwave surface impedance

Abstract

In the approximation of validity of the Drude expression for quasiparticle conductivity and the assumption that all electrons at T = 0 transform into a superfluide condensate, the expression for the quasiparticle scattering rate tau -1 in terms of the real and imaginary parts of the microwave surface impedance has been obtained. The resulting expression is a generalization of the well-known expression for tau^-1, valid for omega x tau is much less 1, to an arbitrary value of omega x tau, where omega is the frequency of the microwave field. From experimental Ka-band impedance measurements, temperature dependence of tau^-1 in superconducting single crystal pnictides Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 is obtained using the generalized expression. It is shown that under condition of the given work, the approximation omega x tau is much less 1 gives the considerable error in determination of tau^-1.