Pseudogap and zero-bias anomaly due to fluctuation suppression of quasiparticle tunneling
Abstract
We study the effect of superconducting fluctuations on the tunnel current-voltage characteristics of disordered superconducting films placed in a perpendicular magnetic field, , in the whole - phase diagram outside the superconducting region. This tunnel-current is experimentally accessible by STM measurements. In the domain of temperatures and relatively weak fields we reproduce existing results for the zero-voltage tunneling conductance, but also discover an important nonlinear contribution, which appears due to dynamic fluctuation modes and results in the formation of a strong zero-bias anomaly (ZBA) on the scale . At large voltages () these modes, together with the contribution from static fluctuations, form a pseudogap maximum. At low temperatures, with magnetic field values near , fluctuations acquire quantum character and the general picture of the voltage dependent tunneling conductance resembles that one close to , where the role of temperature and magnetic field are exchanged. In particular, a gap-like structure appears with maximum at and a sharp ZBA on the scale . The complete expression for the tunneling current at arbitrary fields and temperatures can be evaluated only numerically, which is presented in detail.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1210.4206,
title = {Pseudogap and zero-bias anomaly due to fluctuation suppression of quasiparticle tunneling},
author = {A. Glatz and A. A. Varlamov and V. M. Vinokur},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1210.4206},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
10 pages, 12 figures