CRITICAL CURRENTS IN TYPE-I, THIN-FILM SUPERCONDUCTORS

Within the context of Eliashberg theory, we have calculated the critical pair-breaking current of a type I, thin film superconductor as a function of temperature and impurity content. It is found that strong inelastic scattering increases the critical current over its BCS value. Paramagnetic impurities are also found to increase the reduced critical current, whereas, normal impurity scattering causes a decrease. These results are confirmed by functional derivative calculations. © 1990, Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland). All rights reserved.