Symmetry, Disorder and the Josephson Effect in d-Wave Superconductors

This thesis focuses on aspects of symmetry, disorder and the Josephson effect in d-wave superconductors which are generically characterized by sign changes of the gap function .DELTA.k in certain directions with respect to the underlying crystal lattice. A basic feature for the pure d-wave superconductors is the linear quasiparticle density of states at low energies: n(E) - E We consider the influence of disorder on a 2D d-wave superconductor. The central result of our solution is that the exponent .alpha. for the density of states decreases under the influence of weak non-magnetic disorder n(E) - E.alpha., and