The Tomasch effect in nanoscale superconductors

TL;DR

This paper investigates a new manifestation of the Tomasch effect in nanoscale superconductors caused by quantum confinement, revealing oscillations in the density of states due to quasiparticle interference, with analytical modeling and implications for various confined systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Tomasch effect triggered by quantum confinement in nanoscale superconductors and develops an analytical model to describe it.

Findings

Identification of two types of quasiparticle interference processes causing the TE.

Oscillations in the density of states and local density patterns due to TE.

Analytical description using a reduced inter-subbands BdG Hamiltonian.

Abstract

The Tomasch effect (TE) is due to quasiparticle interference (QPI) as induced by a nonuniform superconducting order parameter, which results in oscillations in the density of states (DOS) at energies above the superconducting gap. Quantum confinement in nanoscale superconductors leads to an inhomogenerous distribution of the Cooper-pair condensate, which we found triggers the manifestation of a new TE. We investigate the electronic structure of the nanoscale superconductors by solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) equations self-consistently and obtain the TE determined by two types of processes, involving two or three particle QPIs. Both types of QPIs result in additional BCS-like Bogoliubov-quasiparticles and BCS-like energy gaps leading to oscillations in the DOS and modulated wave patterns in the local density of states. These effects are strongly related to the symmetries of the system. A reduced $4 \times 4$ inter-subbands BdG Hamiltonian is established in order to describe analytically the TE of two-QPIs. Our study is relevant to nanoscale superconductors, either nanowires or thin films, Bose-Einsten condensates and confined systems such as two-dimensional electron gas interface superconductivity.