A logarithmic contribution to the density of states of rectangular Andreev billiards

TL;DR

This paper shows that semiclassical methods accurately predict the density of states in rectangular Andreev billiards, revealing a logarithmic energy dependence and geometry-dependent prefactors with universal limits.

Contribution

It demonstrates the agreement between quantum calculations and semiclassical predictions for the density of states in rectangular Andreev billiards, highlighting the logarithmic energy dependence.

Findings

Exact classical path length distribution P(s) has logarithmic asymptotic behavior.

Density of states has two contributions: linear and logarithmic in energy.

Prefactors depend on geometry but reach universal limits as superconductor width approaches zero.

Abstract

We demonstrate that the exact quantum mechanical calculations are in good agreement with the semiclassical predictions for rectangular Andreev billiards and therefore for a large number of open channels it is sufficient to investigate the Bohr-Sommerfeld approximation of the density of states. We present exact calculations of the classical path length distribution $P(s)$ which is a non-differentiable function of $s$, but whose integral is a smooth function with logarithmically dependent asymptotic behavior. Consequently, the density of states of rectangular Andreev billiards has two contributions on the scale of the Thouless energy: one which is well-known and it is proportional to the energy, and the other which shows a logarithmic energy dependence. It is shown that the prefactors of both contributions depend on the geometry of the billiards but they have universal limiting values when the width of the superconductor tends to zero.