Coherent coupling between vortex bound states and magnetic impurities in 2D layered superconductors
Authors: Sunghun Park, Víctor Barrena, Samuel Mañas-Valero, José J. Baldoví, Antón Fente, Edwin Herrera, Federico Mompeán, Mar García-Hernández, Ángel Rubio, Eugenio Coronado, Isabel Guillamón, Alfredo Levy Yeyati and Hermann Suderow
Nature Communications 12, 4668 (2021)
Abstract: Bound states in superconductors are expected to exhibit a spatially resolved electron-hole asymmetry which is the hallmark of their quantum nature. This asymmetry manifests as oscillations at the Fermi wavelength, which is usually tiny and thus washed out by thermal broadening or by scattering at defects. Here we demonstrate theoretically and confirm experimentally that, when coupled to magnetic impurities, bound states in a vortex core exhibit an emergent axial electron-hole asymmetry on a much longer scale, set by the coherence length. We study vortices in 2H-NbSe2 and in 2H-NbSe1.8S0.2 with magnetic impurities, characterizing these with detailed Hubbard-corrected density functional calculations. We find that the induced electron-hole imbalance depends on the band character of the superconducting material. Our results show that coupling between quantum bound states in superconductors is remarkably robust and has a strong influence in tunneling measurements.