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Register a new userConfinement of superconducting fluctuations due to emergent electronic inhomogeneities
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The microscopic nature of an insulating state in the vicinity of a superconducting state, in the presence of disorder, is a hotly debated question. While the simplest scenario proposes that Coulomb interactions destroy the Cooper pairs at the transition, leading to localization of single electrons, an alternate possibility supported by experimental observations suggests that Cooper pairs instead directly localize. The question of the homogeneity, granularity, or possibly glassiness of the material on the verge of this transition is intimately related to this fundamental issue. Here, by combining macroscopic and nano-scale studies of superconducting ultrathin NbN films, we reveal nanoscopic electronic inhomogeneities that emerge when the film thickness is reduced. In addition, while thicker films display a purely two-dimensional behaviour in the superconducting fluctuations, we demonstrate a zero-dimensional regime for the thinner samples precisely on the scale of the inhomogeneities. Such behavior is somehow intermediate between the Fermi and Bose insulator paradigms and calls for further investigation to understand the way Cooper pairs continuously evolve from a bound state of fermionic objects into localized bosonic entities.
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Using scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS), we address the problem of the superconductor-insulator phase transition (SIT) in homogeneously disordered ultrathin (2-15 nm) films of NbN. Samples thicker than 8 nm, for which the Ioffe-Regel parameter $k_F l geq 5.6$, manifest a conventional superconductivity : A spatially homogeneous BCS-like gap, vanishing at the critical temperature, and a vortex lattice in magnetic field. Upon thickness reduction, however, while $k_F l$ lowers, the STS revealed striking deviations from the BCS scenario, among which a progressive decrease of the coherence peak height and spatial inhomogeneities. The thinnest film (2.16 nm), while not being exactly at the SIT ($T_C approx 0.4 T_{C-bulk}$), showed astonishingly vanishing coherence peaks and the absence of vortices. In the quasi-2D limit, such clear signatures of the loss of long-range phase coherence strongly suggest that, at the SIT the superconductivity is destroyed by phase fluctuations.
Superconductivity develops in bulk doped SrTiO$_3$ and at the LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interface with a dome-shaped density dependence of the critical temperature $T_c$, despite different dimensionalities and geometries. We propose that the $T_c$ dome of LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ is a shape resonance due to quantum confinement of superconducting bulk SrTiO$_3$. We substantiate this interpretation by comparing the exact solutions of a three-dimensional and quasi-two-dimensional two-band BCS gap equation. This comparison highlights the role of heavy bands for $T_c$ in both geometries. For bulk SrTiO$_3$, we extract the density dependence of the pairing interaction from the fit to experimental data. We apply quantum confinement in a square potential well of finite depth and calculate $T_c$ in the confined configuration. We compare the calculated $T_c$ to transport experiments and provide an explanation as to why the optimal $T_c$s are so close to each other in two-dimensional interfaces and the three-dimensional bulk material.
The type II Dirac semimetal PdTe$_2$ is unique in the family of topological parent materials because it displays a superconducting ground state below 1.7 K. Despite wide speculations on the possibility of an unconventional topological superconducting phase, tunneling and heat capacity measurements revealed that the superconducting phase of PdTe$_2$ follows predictions of the microscopic theory of Bardeen, Cooper and Shriefer (BCS) for conventional superconductors. The superconducting phase in PdTe$_2$ is further interesting because it also displays properties that are characteristics of type-I superconductors and are generally unexpected for binary compounds. Here, from scanning tunneling spectroscopic measurements we show that the surface of PdTe$_2$ displays intrinsic electronic inhomegenities in the normal state which leads to a mixed type I and type II superconducting behaviour along with a spatial distribution of critical fields in the superconducting state. Understanding of the origin of such inhomogeneities may be important for understanding the topological properties of PdTe$_2$ in the normal state.
We describe the transport properties of mesoscopic devices based on the two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) present at the LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interface. Bridges with lateral dimensions down to 500~nm were realized using electron beam lithography. Their detailed characterization shows that processing and confinement do not alter the transport parameters of the 2DEG. The devices exhibit superconducting behavior tunable by electric field effect. In the normal state, we measured universal conductance fluctuations, signature of phase-coherent transport in small structures. The achievement of reliable lateral confinement of the 2DEG opens the way to the realization of quantum electronic devices at the LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interface.
We report on systematic evolutions of antiferromagnetic (AFM) spin fluctuations and unconventional superconductivity (SC) in heavy-fermion (HF) compounds CeRh$_{1-x}$Ir$_{x}$In$_5$ via $^{115}$In nuclear-quadrupole-resonance (NQR) experiment. The measurements of nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate $1/T_1$ have revealed the marked development of AFM spin fluctuations as a consequence of approaching an AFM ordered state with increasing Rh content. Concomitantly the superconducting transition temperature $T_{rm c}$ and the energy gap $Delta_0$ increase drastically from $T_{rm c} = 0.4$ K and $2Delta_0/k_{rm B}T_{rm c} = 5$ in CeIrIn$_5$ up to $T_{rm c} = 1.2$ K and $2Delta_0/k_{rm B}T_{rm c} = 8.3$ in CeRh$_{0.3}$Ir$_{0.7}$In$_5$, respectively. The present work suggests that the AFM spin fluctuations in close proximity to the AFM quantum critical point are indeed responsible for the onset of strong-coupling unconventional SC with the line node in the gap function in HF compounds.
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