Quenched dynamics and pattern formation in clean and disordered Bogoliubov-de Gennes superconductors

Abstract

We study the quench dynamics of a two dimensional superconductor in a square lattice of size up to 200× 200200×200 employing the self-consistent time dependent Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) formalism. In the clean limit, the dynamics of the order parameter for short times, characterized by a fast exponential growth and an oscillatory pattern, agrees with the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) prediction. However, unlike BCS, we observe for longer times a universal exponential decay of these time oscillations. We show explicitly that the origin of this exponential decay is the full emergence of spatial inhomogeneities of the order parameter characterized by the exponential growth of its variance. The addition of a weak disorder does not alter these results qualitatively. In this region, the spatial inhomogeneities rapidly develop into an intricate spatial structure consisting of ordered fragmented stripes in perpendicular directions where the order parameter is heavily suppressed. As the disorder strength increases, the fragmented stripes gradually turn into a square lattice of approximately circular spatial regions where the condensate is heavily suppressed. A further increase of disorder leads to the deformation and ultimate destruction of this lattice. We show these emergent spatial patterns are sensitive to the underlying lattice structure. We explore suitable settings for the experimental confirmation of these findings.