Effects of a collective spin resonance mode on the scanning tunneling microscopy spectra of d-wave superconductors

Phys Rev Lett. 2004 Jan 9;92(1):017002. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.017002. Epub 2004 Jan 7.

Abstract

A high-energy spin resonance mode is known to exist in many high-temperature superconductors. Motivated by recent scanning tunneling microscopy experiments in superconducting Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8+delta), we study the effects of this resonance mode on the local density of states (LDOS). The coupling between the electrons in a d-wave superconductor and the resonance mode produces high-energy peaks in the LDOS, which displays a two-unit-cell periodic modulation around a nonmagnetic impurity. This suggests a new means to not only detect the dynamical spin collective mode but also study its coupling to electronic excitations.