Echolocation by Quasiparticles

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to analyze STM data by examining energy-dependent LDOS oscillations caused by quasiparticle interference, enabling the localization of scatterers and characterization of impurities in superconductors.

Contribution

It proposes a novel analysis technique for STM data that leverages quasiparticle interference patterns to identify scatterer positions and impurity types.

Findings

LDOS oscillations reveal scatterer locations

Method can distinguish impurity types in superconductors

Applicable to STM experiments for material characterization

Abstract

It is shown that the local density of states (LDOS), measured in an Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) experiment, at a single tip position contains oscillations as a function of Energy, due to quasiparticle interference, which is related to the positions of nearby scatterers. We propose a method of STM data analysis based on this idea, which can be used to locate the scatterers. In the case of a superconductor, the method can potentially distinguish the nature of the scattering by a particular impurity.