Fluctuation-induced conductivity of superconductors above the transition temperature - Regularization of the Maki diagram.

The Maki contribution to the conductivity above the superconducting transition temperature is regularized within the framework of the BCS theory. This is achieved through the renormalization of the impurity-scattering vertex by inclusion of the effects of pair fluctuations. The conductivity is evaluated for a thin film. It depends only on the reduced temperature and the normal resistance per square. Fair agreement is found with Al films over a wide temperature range. Agreement is not found with experiments on Bi, Pb, and Ga films, which apparently contain a strong additional pair-breaking effect. The temperature range in which interactions among fluctuations become important in the Maki conductivity is generally larger than that given by the Ginzburg criterion.