Metallic nanograins: spatially nonuniform pairing induced by quantum confinement

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quantum confinement causes spatially nonuniform superconducting pairing in metallic nanograins, especially when discrete energy levels form bunches or shell structures, affecting the order parameter's spatial variation.

Contribution

It reveals the significance of nonuniform pairing induced by quantum confinement effects in metallic nanograins, a topic not previously studied, highlighting the role of matrix elements and chemical potential pinning.

Findings

Quantum confinement enhances pairing matrix elements.

Spatial variations of the order parameter can vary by an order of magnitude.

Nonuniform pairing remains significant when level spacing approaches the bulk gap.

Abstract

It is well-known that the formation of discrete electron levels strongly influences the pairing in metallic nanograins. Here we focus on another effect of quantum confinement in superconducting grains that was not studied previously, i.e., spatially nonuniform pairing. This effect is very significant when single-electron levels form bunches and/or a kind of shell structure: in highly symmetric grains the order parameter can exhibit variations with position by an order of magnitude. Nonuniform pairing is closely related to a quantum-confinement induced modification of the pairing-interaction matrix elements and size-dependent pinning of the chemical potential to groups of degenerate or nearly degenerate levels. For illustration we consider spherical metallic nanograins. We show that the relevant matrix elements are as a rule enhanced in the presence of quantum confinement, which favors spatial variations of the order parameter, compensating the corresponding energy cost. The size-dependent pinning of the chemical potential further increases the spatial variation of the pair condensate. The role of nonuniform pairing is smaller in less symmetric confining geometries and/or in the presence of disorder. However, it always remains of importance when the energy spacing between discrete electron levels $\delta$ is approaching the scale of the bulk gap $\Delta_B$, i.e., $\delta > 0.1$-$0.2\,\Delta_B$.