Superconducting gap modulations: Are they from pair density waves or pair-breaking scattering?

In his seminal work published in Acta Physica Sinica in 1965, Yu Lu pointed out that the superconducting gap exhibits weak modulations near the pair-breaking magnetic impurity in a superconductor. In the past ten year, a series high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy works reported weak superconducting gap modulations in certain superconductors and explained these phenomena as pair density waves. In line with Yu Lu's discovery, Lee D H et al. pointed out that in many cases, the interference effect of pair-breaking scattering can also lead to superconducting gap modulations in space. We will discuss the distinction and unification of these two kinds of mechanisms, as well as their relevance to recent experimental observations.