Ginzburg-Landau Expansion and Physical Properties of Odd-Gap Superconductors

Abstract

Ginzburg-Landau expansion is derived for superconductors with the gap-function odd over $k-k_{F}$. It is shown that in this odd-gap case Ginzburg-Landau coefficients possess an additional dependence on the pairing coupling constant which leads to the appropriate dependence of the physical properties. Non-magnetic impurities influence the odd-gap pairing in a significant way and the mechanism of this influence is quite different from that predicted by the usual theory of "dirty" superconductors. In particular this is reflected in an anomalous behavior of the upper critical field $H_{c2}$ slope close to $T_{c}$. We also derive the complete temperature dependence of $H_{c2}$ for the odd-gap case.