Tunneling Spectroscopy Studies of Superconductors

Tunneling Spectroscopy Studies of Superconductors
Author: Basu Dev Oli
Publisher:
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2021
Genre:
ISBN:

In multiband superconductors, different bands at the Fermi surface contribute to the superconductivity with different magnitudes of superconducting gaps on different portions of the Fermi surface. Each band in a multiband superconductor has a condensate with an amplitude and phase that weakly interacts with the other bands' condensate. The coupling strength between the bands determines whether one or two superconducting transition temperatures are observed, and it is the key to many peculiar properties. In general, if there are two gaps of different magnitude, there are two different length scales associated with the suppression of these gaps in applied magnetic fields, for example. Therefore, effects of multigap superconductivity can be observed in superconducting vortices, which are twirls of supercurrents that are generated when a superconductor is placed in a magnetic field. Furthermore, the two superconducting order parameters in different bands are characterized by a magnitude and phase. In multiband superconductors, there are collective excitations corresponding to fluctuations of the relative phase of two order parameters, so-called the Leggett mode. The first material identified as multiband superconductor is Magnesium Diboride (MgB2) in 2001 with a critical temperature Tc of 39 K. MgB2 is a superconducting material with the highest transition temperature among all conventional BCS superconductors. It has two superconducting gaps \Delta_\pi ~ 2 meV and \Delta_\sigma\ ~ 7 meV and they arise from the existence of two bands \pi and \sigma bands of boron electrons. The discovery of superconductivity in MgB2 renewed interest in the field of multiband superconductivity. MgB2 has attracted many scientists' attention both for the fundamental importance of understanding the multiband superconductivity and possible applications such as magnets, power cables, bolometers, Josephson junction-based electronic devices, and radio-frequency cavities. Afterward, other materials have been identified as multiband superconductors such as NbSe2, the family of iron-based superconductors, heavy fermion superconductors, multilayer cuprates, borocarbides, etc. This dissertation uses tunneling experiments to highlight multiband superconductivity features in two systems, namely MgB2 thin films and ultrathin films of Pb. Further, we use multiple techniques to study a superconducting material, nitrogen-doped niobium, used for superconducting radio-frequency cavities. For the project on MgB2, MgB2/Native-Oxide/Ag planar junctions are fabricated and characterized down to 2.1 K and in the magnetic field parallel to the sample surface up to 6 Tesla. This work investigates how pairbreaking affects the magnitude and phase of the order parameter in a multiband superconductor. The tunneling spectra are analyzed in the framework of a two-band model developed by our theory collaborator Prof. Alex Gurevich, Old Dominion University. The model allows the extraction of the pair-breaking parameters among other quantities. The analysis shows that the order parameter in the ? band is quickly suppressed in the field, the ? band is cleaner than the ? band. The ratio of pairbreaking parameter in the ? band to the ? band rapidly increases at fields higher than ~0.1 T and then plateau at higher fields. This transition around 0.1 T magnetic field suggests a phase decoupling in the two bands of MgB2. Below the transition, the two bands are phase-locked, so mostly, the superconductivity in the ? band is affected, and after phase decoupling, both bands are affected by the applied field. These results are important for a basic understanding of multiband superconductors and the application implications of this material. This phase decoupling has a new and profound consequence on the superconducting state of a multiband superconductor that has been theoretically predicted and never observed experimentally. For the Pb project, ultrathin films of Pb in ultrahigh vacuum conditions are deposited by e-beam evaporation and characterized with low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS). The STM/STS allows measuring the electronic density of states with the highest spatial resolution down to atomic scale. The shape of a superconducting vortex core is determined by the superconducting gap and the Fermi velocity, and the STM allows to map anisotropies of these quantities spatially. The vortex cores of Pb film show a complex shape that evolves from triangular at short distances from the center to a six-fold symmetric star shape farther away from the center. These details are very subtle, and they can be highlighted only if one works within the clean limit (to avoid the averaging effect of the scattering) and by fabricating the heterostructure that pins the vortices spatially. The complex vortex core shape reflects the anisotropy of the two bands that contribute to superconductivity in this material. For the project on Niobium, cold and hot spots from nitrogen-doped Nb cutouts are characterized by low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS) combined with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The radiofrequency (RF) measurements of the quality factor and temperature mapping on an N-doped Nb superconducting resonator cavity are carried out at Jefferson Laboratory before cutting out the samples. This work aims to identify possible sources of excess dissipation in hot spots and relate them to the surface chemical composition and superconducting properties. The temperature mapping revealed a strong effect of the cavity cooldown rate on the intensities of hot spots and their spatial distribution, which indicates a significant contribution of trapped vortices to the RF dissipation. SEM images acquired on the cold and hot spots using a secondary electron detector show absence of residual hydride scars and niobium nitrides on their surface. Angle-resolved XPS measurements on the native surface of these samples revealed higher oxidized Nb 3d states on the N-doped Nb cold spots, which is supported by XPS depth profiles done on the samples by Argon ion sputtering. Argon ion sputtering of oxidized Nb removes oxygen preferentially from Nb2O5 and diffuses to bulk, thickening the lower oxidation state layers. The proximity theory framework's tunneling spectra analysis suggests hot spots have stronger pairbreaking due to a weakly reduced pair potential, a thicker metallic suboxide layer, and a wide distribution of the contact resistance. STM imaging of vortex cores shows a triangular vortex lattice in both samples, and the coherence length is nearly the same in hot and cold spots. The experimental data analysis suggests weakly degraded superconducting properties at the surface of hot spot regions are not the primary sources of RF losses. Instead, they are the regions where vortices nucleate first and get trapped during cooling down. These experimental techniques and findings will be crucial in helping to qualify new recipes for SRF cavity production and to boost their performance.

Principles of Electron Tunneling Spectroscopy

Principles of Electron Tunneling Spectroscopy
Author: E. L. Wolf
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 617
Release: 2012
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 0199589496

Electron tunnelling spectroscopy as a research tool has strongly advanced understanding of superconductivity. This book explains the physics and instrumentation behind the advances illustrated in beautiful images of atoms, rings of atoms and exotic states in high temperature superconductors, and summarizes the state of knowledge that has resulted.

Inelastic Electron Tunneling Spectroscopy

Inelastic Electron Tunneling Spectroscopy
Author: T. Wolfram
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3642812287

Inelastic Electron Tunneling Spectroscop~ or lETS, provides a unique technique for electronically monitoring the vibrational modes of molecul (;5 adsorbed on a metal oxide surface. Since the discovery of the phenomena by JAKLEVIC and LM1BE in 1966, lETS has been developed by a number of scientists as a method for studying the surface chemistry of molecular species adsorbed on aluminum oxide. Recent applications of lETS include investigations of physical and chemical adsorption of hydrocarbons, studies of catalysis by metal particles, detection and identification of trace substances in air and water, and studies of biological molecules and electron damage to such molecules. lETS has been employed to investigate adhesive materials, and studies are currently in prog ress to investigate corrosion species and corrosion inhibitors on aluminum and its alloys. Electronic transitions of molecules have also been studied by lETS. The recent development of the "external doping" technique, whereby molecu lar species can be introduced into fabricated tunnel junctions, opens the door for a vast new array of surface chemical studies by lETS. lETS is rap idly becoming an important tool for the study of surface and interface phe nomena. In addition to its role in surface studies, inelastic tunneling has proved extremely valuable for the study of the electronic properties of thin metallic films, and the recent discovery of light emission from inelastic tunneling promises to be of some importance in the area of device physics.

Schackert, Michael PeterScanning Tunneling Spectroscopy on Electron-Boson Interactions in Superconductors

Schackert, Michael PeterScanning Tunneling Spectroscopy on Electron-Boson Interactions in Superconductors
Author: Schackert, Michael Peter
Publisher: KIT Scientific Publishing
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2015-03-23
Genre: Physics
ISBN: 3731502380

This work describes the experimental study of electron-boson interactions in superconductors by means of inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy performed with a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) at temperatures below 1 K. This new approach allows the direct measurement of the Eliashberg function of conventional superconductors as demonstrated on lead (Pb) and niobium (Nb). Preparative experiments on unconventional iron-pnictides are presented in the end.

Elastic and Inelastic Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy on Iron-Based Superconductors

Elastic and Inelastic Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy on Iron-Based Superconductors
Author: Jasmin Maria Jandke
Publisher: Saint Philip Street Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020-10-09
Genre:
ISBN: 9781013283161

Within this work, the pairing mechanism of conventional (Pb) and unconventional superconductors (SrFe2(As1-xPx )2, FeSe, FeSe/STO) was investigated experimentally by means of elastic and inelastic tunneling spectroscopy at temperatures down to 30 mK. The distinction between elastic and inelastic contributions to tunneling data was elaborated. The results help to identify conventional (phonon-mediated) and unconventional (e.g. spin-?uctuation mediated) superconductivity. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

In-plane Tunneling Spectroscopy of D-wave Superconductors

In-plane Tunneling Spectroscopy of D-wave Superconductors
Author: Puangratana Pairor
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2001
Genre:
ISBN:

This thesis studies the tunneling spectroscopy of a pure d-wave BCS superconductor using a two-dimensional discrete square lattice model. The zero-temperature differential conductances of the junctions with three surface orientations: (100), (110), and (210) are calculated using the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations and a scattering method. The idea of the surface-adapted Brillouin zone is introduced in this thesis. It provides a convenient way of obtaining which transmitted superconducting excitations that an electron from the normal metal will tunnel into. A different surface-adapted Brillouin zone must be used to describe the quasiparticle state of the superconductor for each surface orientation. In general, the surface-adapted Brillouin zone is rectangular and the Fermi surfaces are not necessarily isotropic; thus, the state can be a linear combination of more than two quasi-particle excitations of the same energy and the momenta with the same components along the surface. This thesis demonstrates that this complication has important implications for the interpretation of the tunneling spectrum. It is shown that the calculated tunneling spectra of junctions with orientations away from (100) and (110) contain gap-like peaks, whose positions are not at the maximum gap. The positions of these peaks are predicted to be related to the energy gap of the state with the momentum either parallel to the surface normal, or on the edge of the surface-adapted Brillouin zone. The magnitudes of the energy gaps of these states are found to be strongly dependent on the shape of Fermi surface. These findings open the way for the development of a new method of gaining information about the magnitude of the superconducting energy gap at different points on the Fermi surface.