We consider the screening of an impurity moment in a d-wave superconductor under the influence of a Zeeman magnetic field. Using the numerical renormalization group technique, we investigate the resulting pseudogap Kondo problem, in particular the field-induced crossover behavior in the vicinity of the zero-field boundary quantum phase transition. The impurity spectral function and the resulting changes in the local host density of states are calculated, giving specific predictions for high-field scanning tunneling microscopy measurements on impurity-doped cuprates.
We consider the screening of an impurity moment in a d-wave superconductor under the influence of a Zeeman magnetic field. Using the numerical renormalization group technique, we investigate the resulting pseudogap Kondo problem, in particular the field-induced crossover behavior in the vicinity of the zero-field boundary quantum phase transition. The impurity spectral function and the resulting changes in the local host density of states are calculated, giving specific predictions for high-field scanning tunneling microscopy measurements on impurity-doped cuprates.
We discuss the dynamics of magnetic moments in d-wave superconductors. In particular, we focus on moments induced by doping nonmagnetic impurities into cuprates. The interaction of such moments with the Bogoliubov quasiparticles of the superconductors can be described by variants of the pseudogap Kondo model, characterized by a power-law density of states at the Fermi level. The numerical renormalization-group technique is employed to investigate this Kondo problem for realistic band structures and particle-hole asymmetries, both at zero and finite temperatures. In particular, we study the boundary quantum phase transition between the local-moment and asymmetric strong-coupling phases, and argue that this transition has been observed in recent nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. We determine the spectral properties of both phases and the location of the critical point as a function of Kondo coupling and doping, and discuss quantum-critical crossovers near this phase transition. In addition, changes in the local density of states around the impurity are calculated as functions of temperature, being relevant to scanning tunneling microscopy experiments.
We investigate the impurity resonant state induced by nonmagnetic impurities in d-wave cuprate superconductors in two different impurity models: (i) in a pure potential scattering model within the T-matrix approach and (ii) in a Bose--Fermi Kondo model within the large-N formalism. We modify the superconducting host to resemble the nanoscale electronic inhomogeneities seen in the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) spectra (i.e., the small-and large-gap domains) and study how this influences the impurity resonance. In the pure potential scattering model, the resonant state is found to be a rather robust feature appearing in all host domains. On the other hand, in the Kondo-like model the impurity resonance can appear in the small-gap regions of the host and be completely suppressed in the large-gap regions; this is in agreement with the STM experimental data for Zn-doped ${\text{Bi}}_{2}{\text{Sr}}_{2}{\text{CaCu}}_{2}{\text{O}}_{8+\ensuremath{\delta}}$. Our results imply that the Kondo spin dynamics of the impurity moment is the origin of the impurity resonant state in d-wave superconductors, rather than the pure potential scattering.
The variational approach of Gunnarsson and Sch\"onhammer to the Anderson impurity model is generalized to study d-wave superconductors in the presence of dilute spin-21 impurities. We show that the local moment is screened when the hybridization exceeds a nonzero critical value at which the ground state changes from a spin doublet to a spin singlet. The electron spectral functions are calculated in both phases. We find that while a Kondo resonance develops above the Fermi level in the singlet phase, the spectral function exhibits a low-energy spectral peak below the Fermi level in the spin-doublet phase. The origin of such a ``virtual Kondo resonance'' is the existence of low-lying collective excitations in the spin-singlet sector. We discuss our results in connection with recent spectroscopic experiments in Zn-doped high-Tc superconductors.
The pseudogap Kondo problem, describing a magnetic impurity embedded in an electronic environment with a power-law density of states, displays continuous quantum phase transitions between free and screened moment phases. In this paper we employ renormalization group techniques to analytically calculate universal crossover functions, associated to these transitions, for various observables. Quantitative agreement with the results of Numerical Renormalization Group (NRG) simulations is obtained for temperature-dependent static and zero-temperature dynamic quantities, at and away from criticality. In the notoriously difficult realm of finite-temperature low-frequency dynamics, usually inaccessible to both NRG and perturbative methods, we show that progress can be made by a suitable renormalization procedure in the framework of the Callan-Symanzik equations. Our general strategy can be extended to other zero-temperature phase transitions, both in quantum impurity models and bulk systems.
Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) by providing images of the effects of individual zinc impurities in cuprate superconductors with unprecedented atomic resolution offers a stringent test to models of correlated fermions for high-temperature superconductors. Using a $t\text{\ensuremath{-}}J$ model supplemented by variational Monte Carlo many-body techniques, the spatial dependence of the hole density and of the valence bond and superconducting pairing amplitudes around the impurity are computed. Our calculation supplemented by the theory of interlayer tunneling by I. Martin et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 097003 (2002)] can explain most features of the STM experiments including the cross-shaped spatial structure and the impurity ``resonant'' peak.
Abstract In a superconductor embedded with a quantum magnetic impurity, the Kondo effect is involved, leading to the competition between the Kondo singlet phase and the superconductivity phase. By means of the natural orbitals renormalization group (NORG) method, we revisit the problem of a quantum magnetic impurity coupled with a conventional s-wave superconductor. Here we present a detailed study focusing on the impurity spin polarization and susceptibility, the Kondo screening cloud, as well as the number and structures of the active natural orbitals (ANOs). In the superconducting phase, the impurity spin is partially polarized, indicating that the impurity remains partially screened by the quantum fluctuations. Furthermore, the impurity spin susceptibility becomes divergent, resulting from the presence of residual local moment formed at the impurity site. Correspondingly, a non-integral (incomplete) Kondo cloud is formed, although the ground state is a spin doublet in this phase. In comparison, the Kondo cloud is complete in the Kondo singlet phase as expected. We also quantify the critical point, where the quantum phase transition from a Kondo singlet phase to a superconducting phase occurs, which is consistent with that in previous works. On the other hand, it is illustrated that only one ANO emerges in both quantum phases. The structures of the ANO, projected into both the real space and momentum space, are distinct in the Kondo singlet phase from that in the superconducting phase. More specifically, in the Kondo singlet phase, the ANO keeps fully active with half-occupied, and the superconducting gap has negligible influence on its structure. On the contrary, in the superconducting phase, the ANO tends to be inactive and its structure changes significantly as the superconducting gap increases. Additionally, our investigation demonstrates that the NORG method is reliable and convenient to solve the quantum impurity problems in superconductors as well, which will promote further theoretical studies on the Kondo problems in such systems using numerical methods.