Efficient numerical approach to inhomogeneous superconductivity: the Chebyshev-Bogoliubov-de Gennes method

Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Oct 15;105(16):167006. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.167006. Epub 2010 Oct 12.

Abstract

We propose a highly efficient numerical method to describe inhomogeneous superconductivity by using the kernel polynomial method in order to calculate the Green's functions of a superconductor. Broken translational invariance of any type (impurities, surfaces, or magnetic fields) can be easily incorporated. We show that limitations due to system size can be easily circumvented and therefore this method opens the way for the study of scenarios and/or geometries that were unaccessible before. The proposed method is highly efficient and amenable to large scale parallel computation. Although we only use it in the context of superconductivity, it is applicable to other inhomogeneous mean-field theories.