A microscopic model for the intrinsic Josephson tunneling in high-T_C superconductors

Abstract

A quantitative analysis of a microscopic model for the intrinsic Josephson effect in high-temperature superconductors based on interlayer tunneling is presented. The pairing correlations in the CuO_2-planes are modelled by a 2-D Hubbard-model with attractive interaction, a model which accounts well for some of the observed features such as the short planar coherence length. The stack of Hubbard planes is arranged on a torus, which is threaded by a magnetic flux. The current perpendicular to the planes is calculated as a function of applied flux (i. e. the phase), and -- after careful elimination of finite-size effects due to single-particle tunneling -- found to display a sinusoidal field dependence in accordance with interlayer Josephson tunneling. Studies of the temperature dependence of the supercurrent reveal at best a mild elevation of the Josephson transition temperature compared to the planar Kosterlitz-Thouless temperature. These and other results on the dependence of the model parameters are compared with a standard BCS evaluation.