Shift of the superconducting critical parameters due to correlated disorder

In a nonuniform superconductor with randomly distributed local critical temperature both the macroscopic critical temperature and the upper critical magnetic field strongly depend on the characteristic correlation length ρ0 of correlated disorder. The shift of the macroscopic critical parameters from those for non-correlated disorder, which does not exist for white noise, is obtained for small ρ0 in the framework of the Ginzburg–Landau theory.

► Shift of the critical temperature and second critical magnetic field are calculated for a superconductor with Gaussian correlated disorder. ► All calculations have been performed in the framework of the stochastic Ginzburg-Landau equation. ► For uncorrelated disorder the macroscopic critical temperature is determined by the average of the local critical temperature across the sample, while for correlated disorder both the critical temperature and the upper critical magnetic field depend on disorder correlation length.