Inhomogeneous
s-wave superconductivity is studied in the two-dimensional, square lattice attractive Hubbard Hamiltonian using the Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) mean field approximation. We find that at weak coupling, and for densities mainly below half-filling, an inhomogeneous interaction in which the on-site interaction
Ui takes on two values,
Ui=0,2U results in a larger zero temperature pairing amplitude, and that the superconducting
Tc can also be significantly increased, relative to a uniform system with
Ui=U on all sites. These effects are observed for stripe, checkerboard, and even random patterns of the attractive centers, suggesting that the pattern of inhomogeneity is unimportant. Monte Carlo calculations which reintroduce some of the fluctuations neglected within the BdG approach see the same effect, both for the attractive Hubbard model and a Hamiltonian with
d-wave pairing symmetry.
The effects of quantum confinement on the superconducting ground state are studied within the Bogoliubov–de Gennes (BdG) formalism and an attractive Hubbard model. We consider a periodic arrangement of two-dimensional superconducting grains composed by N × N atoms surrounded by insulating, metallic or superconducting stripes with a thickness of s atoms, leading to 2(N + s)2 coupled self-consistent BdG equations for a supercell of (N + s) × (N + s) atoms. These equations determine the spatial variation of superconducting gap as functions of temperature, electron–electron interaction, and hopping integrals analyzing three types of boundary stripes. The results show a clear enhancement of the superconducting gap and critical temperature induced by the electron confinement in the grain, being larger for the insulating boundary case. Finally, the numerical solutions of BdG equations are compared with those obtained by applying the BCS theory to each grain site.
Unconventional flat band (FB) superconductivity, as observed in van der Waals heterostructures, could open promising avenues towards high-T _c c materials. In FBs, pairings and superfluid weight scale linearly with the interaction parameter, such an unusual behaviour justifies and encourages strategies to promote FB engineering. Bipartite lattices (BLs) which naturally host FBs could be particularly interesting candidates. Within Bogoliubov de Gennes theory and in the framework of the attractive Hubbard model in BLs, a hidden symmetry of the quasi-particle eigenstates is revealed. As a consequence, we demonstrate universal relations for the pairings and the superfluid weight that are independent of the characteristics of the hopping term. Remarkably, it is shown that these general properties are insensitive to disorder as long as the bipartite character is protected.