Quasiclassical theory of spontaneous currents at surfaces and interfaces of d-wave superconductors

We investigate the properties of spontaneous currents generated at surfaces and interfaces of d-wave superconductors using the self-consistent quasiclassical Eilenberger equations. The influence of the roughness and reflectivity of the boundaries on the spontaneous current are studied. We show that these have very different effects at the surfaces compared to the interfaces, which reflects the different nature of the time reversal symmetry breaking states in these two systems. We find a signature of the "anomalous proximity effect" at rough d-wave interfaces. We also show that the existence of a subdominant order parameter, which is necessary for time reversal symmetry breaking at the surface, suppresses the spontaneous current generation due to proximity effect at the interface between two superconductors. We associate orbital moments to the spontaneous currents to explain the "supersereening" effect, which seems to be present at all ideal d-wave surfaces and interfaces, where d(xy) is the favorite subdominant symmetry. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.