Subgap states in superconducting islands

Abstract

We study an interacting quantum dot in contact with a superconducting island described by the Richardson model with a Coulomb repulsion term controlling the number of electrons on the island. This Hamiltonian admits a compact matrix-product-operator representation and can be efficiently and accurately solved using the density-matrix renormalization group. We systematically explore the effects of the charging energy Ec. For Ec comparable to the superconducting gap Δ, the subgap states are stabilized by the combination of Kondo exchange coupling and charge redistribution driven by the Coulomb interaction. The subgap states exist for both even and odd superconductor ground-state occupancy, but with very distinctive excitation spectra in each case. The spectral peaks are not symmetric with respect to the chemical potential and may undergo discontinuous changes as a function of gate voltages.

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