Subgap Bound States from Dynamical Impurities

Abstract

We find that a single non-magnetic dynamical impurity (e.g., a low-frequency localized "vibron" mode) induces a subgap bound state in an s-wave superconductor. A closed-form solution for the bound state energy is found as a function of the vibron frequency in the elastic scattering limit, with the salient features of the bound state energies unaffected by inelastic scattering processes in the sub-THz regime. In addition to subgap features in the low-frequency local density of states, such impurities result in real space regions of reduced spectroscopic weight outside the gap peak.