Eur. Phys. J. B (2013) 86: 495
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2013-40859-6

Regular Article

Full t-matrix approach to quasiparticle interference in non-centrosymmetric superconductors

¹ Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, 01187 Dresden, Germany
² Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany

^a e-mail: alireza@fkf.mpg.de

Received: 23 September 2013
Received in final form: 28 October 2013
Published online: 4 December 2013

Abstract

We develop the full t-matrix theory of quasiparticle interference (QPI) for non-centrosymmetric (NCS) superconductors with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We give a closed solution for the QPI spectrum for arbitrary combination and strength of nonmagnetic (V_c) and magnetic (V_m) impurity scattering potentials in terms of integrated normal and anomalous Green’s functions. The theory is applied to a realistic 2D model of the Ce-based 131-type heavy fermion superconductors. We discuss the QPI dependence on frequency, composition and strength of scattering and compare with Born approximation results. We show that the QPI pattern is remarkably stable against changes in the scattering model and can therefore give reliable information on the properties of Rashba-split Fermi surface sheets and in particular on the accidental nodal position of the mixed singlet-triplet gap function in NCS superconductors.