Subtle Effects of a nonmagnetic impurity on the sub-gap spectrum of a d-wave superconductor in the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state

Abstract

The effect of a nonmagnetic impurity on the subgap electronic spectrum in a d-wave superconductor in the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state is investigated. In a pure system, the spatial variation of the order parameter (OP) of the FFLO state forms a two-dimensional lattice, and there exist two types of sub-gap quasi-particle states. Our numerical iterations indicate that an OP saddle point, and slightly less so energetically, an OP extremum favor to be pinned at the impurity site. The local density of states and the fixed-bias map reveal the subtle effects of an impurity on the subgap energy spectrum, because the OP changes sign in both the (relative) momentum space and the real space.