Local Electronic Structure of Defects in Superconductors

Abstract

The electronic structure near defects (such as impurities) in superconductors is explored using a new, fully self-consistent technique. This technique exploits the short-range nature of the impurity potential and the induced change in the superconducting order parameter to calculate features in the electronic structure down to the atomic scale with unprecedented spectral resolution. Magnetic and non-magnetic static impurity potentials are considered, as well as local alterations in the pairing interaction. Extensions to strong-coupling superconductors and superconductors with anisotropic order parameters are formulated.