Proximity effect between two superconductors spatially resolved by scanning tunneling spectroscopy

Physical Review X

Volumn 4, Issue 1, 2014, Pages

  Cherkez, V ^a   Cuevas, J C ^b   Brun, C ^a   Cren, T ^a   Menard G ^a   Debontridder, F ^a   Stolyarov, V S ^a,d,e   Roditchev, D ^a,c  

^a INSTITUT DES NANOSCIENCES DE PARIS   (France)

^b Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco   (Spain)

^c Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique   (France)

^d MOSCOW INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY   (Russian Federation)

^e INSTITUTE OF SOLID STATE PHYSICS   (Russian Federation)

Author keywords

Condensed matter physics; Superconductivity

Indexed keywords

CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS; HYBRID SYSTEMS; LEAD; MONOLAYERS; SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPY; SOLIDS; SPECTROSCOPY; SUPERCONDUCTING MATERIALS; TEMPERATURE;

CRITICAL TEMPERATURES; LOCAL DENSITY OF STATE; PROXIMITY EFFECTS; SCANNING TUNNELING SPECTROSCOPY; SELF-CONSISTENT SOLUTION; SPATIALLY RESOLVED; SUPERCONDUCTING CORRELATIONS; SUPERCONDUCTING ORDER PARAMETERS;

SUPERCONDUCTIVITY;

EID: 84899866994     PISSN: None     EISSN: 21603308     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.4.011033     Document Type: Article

References (36)

1. P. G. de Gennes, Boundary Effects in Superconductors, Rev. Mod. Phys. 36, 225 (1964).
2. G. Deutscher and P. G. de Gennes, Superconductivity: Proximity Effects, edited by R. D. Parks (Marcel Dekker, New York, 1969), Vol. 2, p. 1005.
3. B. Pannetier and H. Courtois, Andreev Reflection and Proximity Effect, J. Low Temp. Phys. 118, 599 (2000).
4. A. F. Andreev, Thermal Conductivity of the Intermediate State of Superconductors, Sov. Phys. JETP 19, 1228 (1964).
5. S. Guéron, H. Pothier, N. O. Birge, D. Esteve, and M. H. Devoret, Superconducting Proximity Effect Probed on a Mesoscopic Length Scale, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 3025 (1996).
6. M. Meschke, J. T. Peltonen, J. K. Pekola, and F. Giazotto, Tunnel Spectroscopy of a Proximity Josephson Junction, Phys. Rev. B 84, 214514 (2011).
7. M. Vinet, C. Chapelier, and F. Lefloch, Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy on Superconducting Proximity Nanostructures, Phys. Rev. B 63, 165420 (2001).
8. N. Moussy, H. Courtois, and B. Pannetier, Local Spectroscopy of a Proximity Superconductor at Very Low Temperature, Europhys. Lett. 55, 861 (2001).
9. W. Escoffier, C. Chapelier, N. Hadacek, and J.-C. Villégier, Anomalous Proximity Effect in an Inhomogeneous Disordered Superconductor, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 217005 (2004).
10. H. le Sueur, P. Joyez, H. Pothier, C. Urbina, and D. Esteve, Phase Controlled Superconducting Proximity Effect Probed by Tunneling Spectroscopy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 197002 (2008).
11. M. Wolz, C. Debuschewitz, W. Belzig, and E. Scheer, Evidence for Attractive Pair Interaction in Diffusive Gold Films Deduced from Studies of the Superconducting Proximity Effect with Aluminum, Phys. Rev. B 84, 104516 (2011).
12. J. Kim, V. Chua, G. A. Fiete, H. Nam, A. H. MacDonald, and C.-K. Shih, Visualization of Geometric Influences on Proximity Effects in Heterogeneous Superconductor Thin Films, Nat. Phys. 8, 464 (2012).
13. L. Serrier-Garcia, J. C. Cuevas, T. Cren, C. Brun, V. Cherkez, F. Debontridder, D. Fokin, F. S. Bergeret, and D. Roditchev, Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy Study of the Proximity Effect in a Disordered Two-Dimensional Metal, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 157003 (2013).
14. C. Kumpf, O. Bunk, J. H. Zeysing, M. M. Nielsen, M. Nielsen, R. L. Johnson, and R. Feidenhans, Structural Study of the Commensurate-Incommensurate Low-Temperature Phase Transition of Pb on Si(111), Surf. Sci. 448, L213 (2000).
15. L. Seehofer, G. Falkenberg, D. Daboul, and R. L. Johnson, Structural Study of the Close-Packed Two-Dimensional Phases of Pb on Ge(111) and Si(111), Phys. Rev. B 51, 13503 (1995).
16. K. Horikoshi, X. Tong, T. Nagao, and S. Hasegawa, Structural Phase Transitions of Pb-Adsorbed Si(111) Surfaces at Low Temperatures, Phys. Rev. B 60, 13287 (1999).
17. D. Eom, S. Qin, M.-Y. Chou, and C. K. Shih, Persistent Superconductivity in Ultrathin Pb Films: A Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy Study, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 027005 (2006).
18. T. Nishio, T. An1, A. Nomura, K. Miyachi, T. Eguchi, H. Sakata, S. Lin, N. Hayashi, N. Nakai, M. Machida, and Y. Hasegawa, Superconducting Pb Island Nanostructures Studied by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 167001 (2008).
19. T. Cren, D. Fokin, F. Debontridder, V. Dubost, and D. Roditchev, Ultimate Vortex Confinement Studied by Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 127005 (2009).
20. C. Brun, I-Po Hong, F. Patthey, I. Yu. Sklyadneva, R. Heid, P. M. Echenique, K. P. Bohnen, E. V. Chulkov, and W.-D. Schneider, Reduction of the Superconducting Gap of Ultrathin Pb Islands Grown on Si(111), Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 207002 (2009).
21. T. Zhang, P. Cheng, W.-J. Li, Y.-J. Sun, G. Wang, X.-G. Zhu, K. He, L. Wang, X. Ma, X. Chen, Y. Wang, Y. Liu, H.-Q. Lin, J.-F. Jia, and Q.-K. Xue, Superconductivity in One-Atomic-Layer Metal Films Grown on Si(111), Nat. Phys. 6, 104 (2010).
22. M. Yamada, T. Hirahara, and S. Hasegawa, Magnetoresistance Measurements of a Superconducting Surface State of In-Induced and Pb-Induced Structures on Si(111), Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 237001 (2013).
23. R. Feng, E. H. Conrada, M. C. Tringides, C. Kimb, and P. F. Miceli, Wetting-Layer Transformation for Pb Nanocrystals Grown on Si(111), Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 3866 (2004).
24. T. Cren, L. Serrier-Garcia, F. Debontridder, and D. Roditchev, Vortex Fusion and Giant Vortex States in Confined Superconducting Condensates, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 097202 (2011).
25. A notable exception is Ref. [11], where the authors used the Usadel equations to discuss the possibility of having an attractive pairing interaction in gold in the study of the proximity effect in an Al/Au bilayer.
26. K. D. Usadel, Generalized Diffusion Equation for Superconducting Alloys, Phys. Rev. Lett. 25, 507 (1970).
27. J. C. Hammer, J. C. Cuevas, F. S. Bergeret, and W. Belzig, Density of States and Supercurrent in Diffusive SNS Junctions: Role of Nonideal Interfaces and Spin-Flip Scattering, Phys. Rev. B 76, 064514 (2007).
28. M. Eschrig, J. Kopu, A. Konstandin, J. C. Cuevas, M. Fogelström, and G. Schön, Singlet-Triplet Mixing in Superconductor-Ferromagnet Hybrid Devices, Adv. Solid State Phys. 44, 533 (2004).
29. Y. V. Nazarov, Novel Circuit Theory of Andreev Reflection, Superlattices Microstruct. 25, 1221 (1999).
30. C. Brun et al. arXiv:1401.7876.
31. I. Bozovic, G. Logvenov, M. A. J. Verhoeven, P. Caputo, E. Goldobin, and M. R. Beasle, Giant Proximity Effect in Cuprate Superconductors, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 157002 (2004).
32. L. Covaci and F. Marsiglio, Proximity Effect and Josephson Current in Clean Strong/Weak/Strong Superconducting Trilayers, Phys. Rev. B 73, 014503 (2006).
33. M. Eschrig, Distribution Functions in Nonequilibrium Theory of Superconductivity and Andreev Spectroscopy in Unconventional Superconductors, Phys. Rev. B 61, 9061 (2000).
34. J. Kopu, M. Eschrig, J. C. Cuevas, and M. Fogelström, Transfer-Matrix Description of Heterostructures Involving Superconductors and Ferromagnets, Phys. Rev. B 69, 094501 (2004).
35. W. H. Press, S. A. Teukolsky, W. T. Vetterling, and B. P. Flannery, Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 1992).
36. W. Belzig, C. Bruder, and G. Schön, Local Density of States in a Dirty Normal Metal Connected to a Superconductor, Phys. Rev. B 54, 9443 (1996).