High-Resolution Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy of Vortex Cores in Inhomogeneous Electronic States of Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_<i>x</i>

Abstract

We studied electronic states in vortex cores of slightly overdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2Ox by scanning tunneling spectroscopy. We have found that they have stripe structures with a 4a0 width extending along the Cu-O bond directions. Vortex core states are observed as two peaks at particle-hole symmetric positions in the energy gap. Along a stripe, the peak positions of vortex core states are constant and not influenced by the spatial variation of the energy gap \Delta. Outer stripes have a larger energy than inner stripes. A mazelike pattern in the electronic states at E = +-\Delta has been observed all over the surface both inside and outside the vortex core. The orientation of stripes of vortex core states was found to be related to the mazelike pattern in the vortex core region. A short-range order of the mazelike pattern spatially coexists with the superconductivity and locally breaks the symmetry of the two Cu-O bond directions. We propose that the vortex core bound states are formed by Bogoliubov quasiparticles owing to the depairing of Cooper pairs and have a local C2 symmetry influenced by the short-range order of the mazelike pattern.