Non-gapless excitation and zero-bias fast oscillations in the LDOS of surface superconducting states

TL;DR

This paper investigates the unique quasiparticle spectrum and local density of states oscillations in a novel surface superconducting state, revealing non-gapless excitations and potential experimental signatures of the surface PDW phase.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the surface PDW state has a non-gapless spectrum and links the phase transition to zero-bias LDOS oscillations, providing new insights into surface superconductivity.

Findings

Surface PDW state has a non-gapless quasiparticle spectrum.

Phase transition is associated with zero-bias LDOS oscillations.

Potential experimental signatures for surface PDW state.

Abstract

Recently a novel surface pair-density-wave (PDW) superconducting state has been discovered in Refs. [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{122}, 165302 (2019)] and Phys. Rev. B \textbf{101}, 054506 (2020)], which may go through a distinct multiple phase transition (MPT) when the superconductivity fades away from bulk to the boundary (e.g. edges and corners). Based on the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations for the attractive tight-binding Hubbard modal in a one-dimensional chain, we demonstrate that the surface PDW state has a non-gapless quasiparticle spectrum, which is contrary to the conventional surface superconducting state. Moreover, we find that the MPT is associated with a zero-bias fast oscillating pattern in the LDOS near the surface. Our findings provide a potential experimental clue to identify the surface PDW state.