Impurity-dependent quantum geometry in 2D flat band superconductors

Abstract

In flat band superconductors, quantum geometry, rather than kinetic energy, governs pairing and transport. However, how this geometry manifests in the response to a local, individually addressable impurity remains largely unexplored. Here, we study the Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) bound state induced by a magnetic adatom that hybridizes with every orbital of a two-dimensional flat band superconductor, and characterize its spatial profile using two quantities: the quadratic spread $Q_S$ and the localization length $\xi$. We show that $Q_S$ is not set by the quantum metric alone, as geometric corrections arising from inter-orbital interference and, more importantly, from the anisotropy of the adatom-lattice hybridization contribute on equal footing, making $Q_S$ strongly impurity dependent and tunable. On the other hand, $\xi$ emerges from the projection onto the flat band alone and is a universal property set by the overlap of compact localized states. All impurity dependence is instead isolated in the prefactor of the wavefunction whose magnitude correlates directly with $Q_S$. We, therefore, report a clean separation between universal and impurity-tunable physics from the induced YSR bound state in these systems, and confirm our results numerically via exact diagonalization.

7 pages, 5 figures