Strong-coupling Behaviour of Critical Temperature of Pb/Ag, Pb/Cu and Pb/Al Nanocomposites Explained by Proximity Eliashberg Theory

The experimental critical temperature of systems of nanoparticles superconducting (Pb) and normal (Ag, Cu and Al) with a random distribution and sizes less than their respective coherence lengths, is governed by proximity effect as the experimental data shown. At first glance the behaviour of the variation of the critical temperature in function of the ratio of the volume fractions of the superconducting and the normal metal components seems to suggest a weak coupling behaviour for the superconductor. In reality, upon a more careful analysis using Eliashberg’s theory for the proximity effect, the system instead shows a strong coupling nature. The most interesting thing is that the theory has no free parameters and perfectly explains the behavior of the experimental data just with the assumption, in the cases of nanoparticles of $Ag$ and $Cu$, that the value of the density of states at the Fermi level of silver and copper is equal to value of lead.