Quasiparticle mirages in the tunneling spectra of d-wave superconductors

I. Paul; A. D. Klironomos; M. R. Norman

doi:10.1103/physrevb.78.020508

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arXiv · 0707.3158

Quasiparticle mirages in the tunneling spectra of d-wave superconductors

I. Paul·A. D. Klironomos·M. R. Norman

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Abstract

We illustrate the importance of many-body effects in the Fourier transformed local density of states (FT-LDOS) of d-wave superconductors from a model of electrons coupled to an Einstein mode with energy Omega_0. For bias energies significantly larger than Omega_0 the quasiparticles have short lifetimes due to this coupling, and the FT-LDOS is featureless if the electron-impurity scattering is treated within the Born approximation. In this regime it is important to include boson exchange for the electron-impurity scattering which provides a `step down' in energy for the electrons and allows for long lifetimes. This many-body effect produces qualitatively different results, namely the presence of peaks in the FT-LDOS which are mirrors of the quasiparticle interference peaks which occur at bias energies smaller than ~ Omega_0. The experimental observation of these quasiparticle mirages would be an important step forward in elucidating the role of many-body effects in FT-LDOS measurements.

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I. Paul, A. D. Klironomos, M. R. Norman. 2008-07-17. Quasiparticle mirages in the tunneling spectra of d-wave superconductors. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.78.020508

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