Tunable striped-patterns by lattice anisotropy and magnetic impurities in d-wave superconductors

TL;DR

This study computationally demonstrates how lattice anisotropy and magnetic impurities can induce and control stripe and checkerboard patterns in d-wave superconductors, aligning with experimental observations.

Contribution

It reveals that lattice anisotropy and magnetic impurities can induce tunable pattern transitions in d-wave superconductors, providing insights into experimental control of these patterns.

Findings

Weak lattice anisotropy induces checkerboard to stripe transition.

Spin order modulation period matches neutron scattering data.

Critical anisotropy causes orientation and pattern restoration transitions.

Abstract

The pattern transition induced by lattice anisotropy (LA) and magnetic impurities is computationally observed in near-optimally doped d-wave superconductors (DSCs). For the single impurity case, a transition from the checkerboard to stripe pattern can be induced even with a very weak LA. Moreover, the modulation period of eight lattice constants (8$a$) in the spin order coincides with neutron scattering data. For the two-impurity case, an orientation transition from the longitudinal impurity-pinned stripe into the transverse pattern is observed when the LA ratio reaches some critical value. At the critical point, it is found that the structures around magnetic impurities could restore checkerboard patterns. These results indicate that the formation of stripes in DSCs might induced by various effects, and could be tunable experimentally.