Nanoscale Impurity Structures on the Surface of $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave Superconductors

Abstract

We study the effects of nanoscale impurity structures on the local electronic structure of $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave superconductors. We show that the interplay between the momentum dependence of the superconducting gap, the geometry of the nanostructure and its orientation gives rise to a series of interesting quantum effects. Among these are the emergence of a zero bias conductance peak in the superconductor's density of states and the suppression of impurity states for certain nanostructures. The latter effect can be used to screen impurity resonances in the superconducting state.

arXiv comment4 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Impurities, Quantum Interference and Quantum Phase Transitions in s-wave superconductors
• Identifying Collective Modes via Impurities in the Cuprate Superconductors