Anderson transition of in-gap quasiparticles in a quasi-two-dimensional disordered superconductor

TL;DR

This study provides experimental and theoretical insights into the Anderson transition of in-gap quasiparticles in a disordered quasi-two-dimensional superconductor, highlighting the role of superconducting fluctuations in quasiparticle localization and delocalization.

Contribution

It offers the first experimental evidence linking order-parameter fluctuations to the Anderson transition of BdG quasiparticles in a quasi-2D superconductor, supported by simulations and renormalization group analysis.

Findings

Superconducting fluctuations influence quasiparticle delocalization.

Enhanced pairing fluctuations lead to quasiparticle delocalization.

The 10-fold way classification scheme needs extension to include order-parameter fluctuations.

Abstract

The Anderson transition of Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) quasiparticles in superconducting state has been studied theoretically for last three decades. However, its experimental proof is lacking. In particular, the relationship of the superconducting order-parameter fluctuations and the Anderson transition of BdG quasiparticles have not been well understood. Our study, based on scanning tunneling microscopy measurements, investigates how BdG quasiparticles become Anderson-localized and delocalized as a function of energy and applied magnetic field in a quasi-two-dimensional Fe-based superconductor with sufficient zero-bias BdG quasiparticles. The anomalous multifractal spectra based on the spatial distributions of the pairing gaps and the coherent peak heights suggest that superconducting fluctuations play a key role in the delocalization of in-gap BdG quasiparticles. Our real-space Hartree-Fock-BCS-Anderson simulations and renormalization group analysis with pairing fluctuations support quasiparticle localization and suggest that enhanced pairing fluctuations lead to delocalization of BdG quasiparticles and "weak localization" of phase-fluctuating Cooper pairs in quasi-two-dimensional disordered superconductors. The present study proposes that the 10-fold way classification scheme has to be generalized to take order-parameter fluctuations in actual quantum matter. Also, it shed light on how ac energy loss due to quasiparticles at Fermi level can be controlled in a quasi-2d superconductor with sufficient pairing fluctuation.