Fate of disorder-induced inhomogeneities in strongly correlated d-wave superconductors

We analyze the complex interplay of the strong correlations and impurities in a high temperature superconductor and show that both the nature and degree of the inhomogeneities at zero temperature in the local-order parameters change drastically from those obtained in a simple Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory. Although both the strong electronic repulsions and disorder contribute to the nanoscale inhomogeneity in the population of charge-carriers, we find they compete with each other, leading to a relatively smooth variation of the local density. Our self-consistent calculations modify the spatial fluctuations in the pairing amplitude by suppressing all the double occupancy within a Gutzwiller formalism and prohibit the formation of distinct superconducting 'islands'. In contrast, presence of such 'islands' controls the outcome if strong correlations are neglected. The reorganization of the spatial structures in the Gutzwiller method makes these superconductors surprisingly insensitive to the impurities. This is illustrated by a very weak decay of superfluid stiffness, off-diagonal long-range order and local density of states up to a large disorder strength. Exploring the origin of such a robustness, we conclude that the underlying one-particle normal states reshape in a rich manner, such that the superconductor formed by pairing these states experiences a weaker but spatially correlated effective disorder. Such a route to superconductivity is evocative of Anderson's theorem. Our results capture the key experimental trends in the cuprates.