Spatial modulation of unitary impurity-induced resonances in superconducting CeCoIn₅

Abstract

Motivated by recent experimental progress in high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) techniques, we investigate the local quasiparticle density of states around a unitary impurity in the heavy-fermion superconductor CeCoIn₅. Based on the T -matrix approach we obtain a sharp nearly zero-energy resonance state in the strong impurity potential scattering localized around the impurity and find qualitative differences in the spatial pattern of the tunneling conductance modulated by the nodal structure of the superconducting gap. These unique features may be used as a probe of the superconducting gap symmetry and, in combination with further STM measurements, may help to confirm the d_{x^2-y^2} pairing in CeCoIn₅ at ambient pressure.

Keywords

pairing symmetries / effects of disorder / tunneling phenomena

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