Spatial inhomogeneities in disordered d-wave superconductors - art. no. 020505

We study a short coherence length d-wave superconductor with a finite densi ty of unitary scatterers using the Bogoliubov-deGennes technique. We find t hat the low-energy density of states is reduced, the superfluid stiffness i s significantly larger, and off-diagonal long-range order is more robust th an the conventional self-consistent T-matrix prediction. These results an a consequence of the inhomogeneous pairing amplitude in the ground state and of the low-lying excitations formed by hybridized impurity resonances. Thi s inhomogeneous response accounts for the insensitivity of high-T-c superco nductors to impurities.