No Arabic abstract
Besides the well-known existence of Andreev bound states, the zero-energy local density of states at the boundary of a d-wave superconductor strongly depends on the boundary geometry itself. In this work, we examine the influence of both a simple wedge-shaped boundary geometry and a more complicated polygonal or faceted boundary structure on the local density of states. For a wedge-shaped boundary geometry, we find oscillations of the zero-energy density of states in the corner of the wedge, depending on the opening angle of the wedge. Furthermore, we study the influence of a single Abrikosov vortex situated near a boundary, which is of either macroscopic or microscopic roughness.
We calculate the density of states of a disordered inhomogeneous d-wave superconductor in a magnetic field. The field-induced vortices are assumed to be pinned at random positions and the effects of the scattering of the quasi-particles off the vortices are taken into account using the singular gauge transformation of Franz and Tesanovic. We find two regimes for the density of states: at very low energies the density of states follows a law rho(epsilon) sim rho_0 + |epsilon|^{alpha} where the exponent is close to 1. A good fit of the density of states is obtained at higher energies, excluding a narrow region around the origin, with a similar power law energy dependence but with alpha close to 2. Both at low and at higher energies rho_0 scales with the inverse of the magnetic length (sqrt{B}).
We explore correlations of inhomogeneous local density of states (LDoS) for impure superconductors with different symmetries of the order parameter (s-wave and d-wave) and different types of scatterers (elastic and magnetic impurities). It turns out that the LDoS correlation function of superconductor always slowly decreases with distance up to the phase-breaking length $l_{phi}$ and its long-range spatial behavior is determined only by the dimensionality, as in normal metals. On the other hand, the energy dependence of this correlation function is sensitive to symmetry of the order parameter and nature of scatterers. Only in the simplest case of s-wave superconductor with elastic scatterers the inhomogeneous LDoS is directly connected to the corresponding characteristics of normal metal.
Andreev bound states at boundaries of d-wave superconductors are strongly influenced by the boundary geometry itself. In this work, the zero-energy spectral weight of the local quasiparticle density of states is presented for the case of wedge-shaped boundaries with rounded corners. Generally, both orientation of the d-wave and the specific local reflection properties of the rounded wedges determine, whether Andreev bound states exist or not. For the bisecting line of the wedge being parallel to the nodal direction of the d-wave gap function, strong zero-energy Andreev bound states are expected at the round part of the boundary.
Solid 4He may acquire superfluid characteristics due to the frustration of the solid phase at grain boundaries. Here, we show that an analogous effect occurs in systems with competition among charge-density-waves (CDWs) and superconductivity in the presence of disorder, as cuprate or dichalcogenide superconductors. The CDWs breaks apart in domains with topologically protected filamentary superconductivity (FSC) at the interfaces. Transport experiments carried out in underdoped cuprates with the magnetic field acting as a control parameter are shown to be in excellent agreement with the theoretical expectation. At high temperature and low fields we find a transition from CDWs to fluctuating superconductivity, weakly affected by disorder, while at high field and low temperature the protected filamentary superconducting phase appears in close analogy with glassy supersolid phenomena in 4He.
We investigate the mutual influence of impurities in two-dimensional d-wave superconductors involving self-consistent solutions of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. The local order parameter suppression, the local density of states (LDOS) as well as the interference of impurity-induced structures are analyzed. We employ an impurity position averaging scheme for the DOS that does not neglect these interference effects, as the commonly used $T$-matrix approaches do.