Tunneling conductance for d-wave superconductors: Dependence on crystallographic orientation and Fermi surface

P. Pairor; M. B. Walker

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.65.064507

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Tunneling conductance for d-wave superconductors: Dependence on crystallographic orientation and Fermi surface

P. Pairor, M. B. Walker

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.65.064507 · Physical Review B

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Abstract

The dependence of the ab-plane differential conductance of a normal-metal-insulator-da2−b2-wave superconductor junction on the superconductor crystal orientation and its Fermi surface is investigated using a two-dimensional square lattice model. In the tunneling limit, when the orientation is away from {100} and {110}, the study shows that there are features at other energies in addition to a zero-bias conductance peak and a shoulderlike feature at the maximum gap. These additional features are found to occur at either the energy gap of the state with the momentum normal to the surface or the gap of the state with the momentum on the edge of the surface-adapted Brillouin zone, or at both of the energy gaps, depending on the shape of the Fermi surface. These considerations show that, in principle, tunneling can be used to determine the energy gap at wave vectors other than those at which the gap is at a maximum.