Electronic Theory for Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Spectra in Infinite-Layer Nickelate Superconductors

Abstract

Recent scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) observation of U-shaped and V-shaped spectra (and their mixture) in superconducting Nd${}_{1-x}$Sr${}_x$NiO${}_2$ thin films has been interpreted as presence of two distinct gap symmetries in this nickelate superconductor [Gu et al., Nat. Comm. 11, 6027 (2020)]. Here, using a two-band model of nickelates capturing dominant contributions from Ni-$3d_{x^2-y^2}$ and rare-earth (R)-$5d_{3z^2-r^2}$ orbitals, we show that the experimental observation can be simply explained within a pairing scenario characterized by a conventional $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave gap structure with lowest harmonic on the Ni-band and a $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave gap with higher-harmonics on the R-band. We perform realistic simulations of STM spectra employing first-principles Wannier functions to properly account for the tunneling processes and obtain V, U, and mixed spectral line-shapes depending on the position of the STM tip within the unit cell. The V- and U-shaped spectra are contributed from Ni and R-bands, respectively, and Wannier functions, in essence, provide position-dependent weighing factors, determining the spectral line-shape at a given intra-unit cell position. We propose a phase-sensitive experiment to distinguish between the proposed $d$-wave gap structure and time-reversal symmetry breaking $d+is$ gap which yields very similar intra-unit cell spectra.

arXiv comment10 pages, 8 Figures

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• Superconductivity in nickel based 112 systems
• Superconducting Instabilities in Strongly-Correlated Infinite-Layer Nickelates
• Dynamical Mean Field Studies of Infinite Layer Nickelates: Physics Results and Methodological Implications
• Two-gap superconductivity and decisive role of rare-earth $d$ electrons in infinite-layer nickelates
• Dynamical structural instability and its implication on the physical properties of infinite-layer nickelates
• Quantifying interaction mechanism in infinite layer nickelate superconductors
• Assessing the correlated electronic structure of lanthanum nickelates
• Observation of Coulomb blockade and Coulomb staircases in superconducting Pr0.8Sr0.2NiO2 films
• Lattice dynamics of the infinite-layer nickelate LaNiO${}_2$
• Intrinsic coherence length anisotropy in nickelate, and some pnictide, and chalcogenide superconductors