Thermodynamic properties in the evolution from BCS to Bose-Einstein condensation for a d-wave superconductor at low temperatures

The low-temperature evolution from BCS to Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) for a two-dimensional d-wave superconductor is discussed at the saddle point (mean field) level. A systematic study of the changes of low-temperature thermodynamic properties is presented as a function of the charge carrier density and fixed interaction. It has been found that when the interaction strength is large enough, there is a critical density below which the single quasiparticle excitation spectrum develops a gap. At higher density of carriers and lower interaction strength (towards the BCS regime) the superconductor has gapless quasiparticle excitations, while at lower densities and higher interactions (towards the BEC regime) quasiparticle excitations are fully gapped. The appearence of a full gap in the quasiparticle excitation spectrum has dramatic consequences to the compressibility, specific heat, and spin susceptibility at low temperatures, as the critical density n(c) is crossed. The change in behavior of these quantities indicates a possible quantum phase transition between a d-wave gapless phase and a d-wave fully gapped phase, as n(c) is crossed.