Inhomogeneous states of nonequilibrium superconductors: Quasiparticle bags and antiphase domain walls

Nonequilibrium properties of short-coherence-length s-wave superconductors are analyzed in the presence of extrinsic and intrinsic inhomogeneities. In general, the lowest-energy configurations of quasiparticle excitations are topological textures into which quasiparticles segregate and that are described as antiphase domain walls between superconducting regions whose order parameter phases differ by π. Antiphase domain walls can be probed by various experimental techniques, for example, by optical absorption and NMR. At zero temperature, quasiparticles seldom appear as self-trapped bag states. However, for low concentrations of quasiparticles, they may be stabilized in superconductors by extrinsic defects.