Yu-Shiba-Rusinov States in s‑Wave Kagome Superconductors: Self-Consistent Bogoliubov–de Gennes Calculations

• Published in: The journal of physical chemistry letters 2024-09, Vol.15 (35), p.9084-9091
• Main Authors: Ding, Shuaibo, Bai, Yunfei, Bulekov, A. A., Zhang, Wenhui, Shanenko, A. A., Chen, Yajiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Physical Insights into Materials and Molecular Properties
• ISSN: 1948-7185; 1948-7185
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.4c02322

Significant research has recently been conducted into the Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) states in kagome superconductors through theoretical modeling and experimental investigations. However, additional efforts are still needed to further understand the local superconductivity near magnetic impurities in the kagome lattice and clarify how relevant quantities depend on the interaction strength, J, between such impurities and electrons. In this study, we explore a self-consistent numerical solution of the Bogoliubov–de Gennes equations for an s-wave superconducting Kagome model with a single classical magnetic impurity. Our study reveals that with increasing J, the local pair potential is systematically depressed in the vicinity of the impurity, similar to previous results obtained for the square and triangular lattices. Moreover, when J is further increased, the system undergoes a first-order phase transition with the appearance of stable and metastable states, reflecting the presence of the hysteresis loop in the pertinent quantities. As a consequence of this transition, the minimal energy of the stable YSR state is nonzero at any J, contrary to the expectations based on the assumption of a constant pair potential. A distinctive feature of the kagome lattice is that characteristics of the first-order transition are very sensitive to the position of the chemical potential within the kagome energy spectrum.