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Register a new userGate-tunable superconductivity at SrTiO3 surface realized by Al layer evaporation
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Electronic properties of low dimensional superconductors are determined by many-body-effects. This physics has been studied traditionally with superconducting thin films, and in recent times with two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) at oxide interfaces. In this work, we show that a superconducting 2DEG can be generated by simply evaporating a thin layer of metallic Al under ultra-high vacuum on a SrTiO3 crystal, whereby Al oxidizes into amorphous insulating alumina, doping the SrTiO3 surface with oxygen vacancies. The superconducting critical temperature of the resulting 2DEG is found to be tunable with a gate voltage with a maximum value of 360 mK. A gate-induced switching between superconducting and resistive states is demonstrated. Compared to conventionally-used pulsed-laser deposition (PLD), our work simplifies to a large extent the process of fabricating oxide-based superconducting 2DEGs. It will make such systems accessible to a broad range of experimental techniques useful to understand low-dimensional phase transitions and complex many-body-phenomena in electronic systems.
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SrTiO$_3$ is a superconducting semiconductor with a pairing mechanism that is not well understood. SrTiO$_3$ undergoes a ferroelastic transition at $T=$ 105 K, leading to the formation of domains with boundaries that can couple to electronic properties. At two-dimensional SrTiO$_3$ interfaces, the orientation of these ferroelastic domains is known to couple to the electron density, leading to electron-rich regions that favor out-of-plane distortions and electron-poor regions that favor in-plane distortion. Here we show that ferroelastic domain walls support low energy excitations that are analogous to capillary waves at the interface of two fluids. We propose that these capillary waves mediate electron pairing at the LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interface, resulting in superconductivity around the edges of electron-rich regions. This mechanism is consistent with recent experimental results reported by Pai et al. [PRL $bf{120}$, 147001 (2018)]
The carrier density in tens of nanometers thick graphite samples (multi-layer-graphene, MLG) has been modified by applying a gate voltage ($V_g$) perpendicular to the graphene planes. Surface potential microscopy shows inhomogeneities in the carrier density ($n$) in the sample near surface region and under different values of $V_g$ at room temperature. Transport measurements on different MLG samples reveal that under a large enough applied electric field these regions undergo a superconducting-like transition at $T lesssim 17$ K. A magnetic field applied parallel or normal to the graphene layers suppresses the transition without changing appreciably the transition temperature.
Josephson junctions made of closely-spaced conventional superconductors on the surface of 3D topological insulators have been proposed to host Andreev bound states (ABSs) which can include Majorana fermions. Here, we present an extensive study of the supercurrent carried by low energy ABSs in Nb/Bi$_2$Se$_3$/Nb Josephson junctions in various SQUIDs as we modulate the carrier density in the Bi$_2$Se$_3$ barriers through electrostatic top gates. As previously reported, we find a precipitous drop in the Josephson current at a critical value of the voltage applied to the top gate. This drop has been attributed to a transition where the topologically trivial 2DEG at the surface is nearly depleted, causing a shift in the spatial location and change in nature of the helical surface states. We present measurements that support this picture by revealing qualitative changes in the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the critical current across this transition. In particular, we observe pronounced fluctuations in the critical current near total depletion of the 2DEG that demonstrate the dynamical nature of the supercurrent transport through topological low energy ABSs.
Single-layer FeSe films grown on the SrTiO3 substrate (FeSe/STO) have attracted much attention because of their possible record-high superconducting critical temperature Tc and distinct electronic structures in iron-based superconductors. However, it has been under debate on how high its Tc can really reach due to the inconsistency of the results obtained from the transport, magnetic and spectroscopic measurements. Here we report spectroscopic evidence of superconductivity pairing at 83 K in single-layer FeSe/STO films. By preparing high-quality single-layer FeSe/STO films, we observe for the first time strong superconductivity-induced Bogoliubov back-bending bands that extend to rather high binding energy ~100 meV by high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission measurements. The Bogoliubov back-bending band provides a new definitive benchmark of superconductivity pairing that is directly observed up to 83 K in the single-layer FeSe/STO films. Moreover, we find that the superconductivity pairing state can be further divided into two temperature regions of 64-83 K and below 64 K. We propose the 64-83 K region may be attributed to superconductivity fluctuation while the region below 64 K corresponds to the realization of long-range superconducting phase coherence. These results indicate that either Tc as high as 83 K is achievable in iron-based superconductors, or there is a pseudogap formation from superconductivity fluctuation in single-layer FeSe/STO films.
Electronic phase separation is crucial for the fascinating macroscopic properties of the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (LAO/STO) paradigm oxide interface, including the coexistence of superconductivity and ferromagnetism. We investigate this phenomenon using angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) in the soft-X-ray energy range, where the enhanced probing depth combined with resonant photoexcitation allow access to fundamental electronic structure characteristics (momentum-resolved spectral function, dispersions and ordering of energy bands, Fermi surface) of buried interfaces. Our experiment uses X-ray irradiation of the LAO/STO interface to tune its oxygen deficiency, building up a dichotomic system where mobile weakly correlated Ti t2g-electrons co-exist with localized strongly correlated Ti eg-ones. The ARPES spectra dynamics under X-ray irradiation shows a gradual intensity increase under constant Luttinger count of the Fermi surface. This fact identifies electronic phase separation (EPS) where the mobile electrons accumulate in conducting puddles with fixed electronic structure embedded in an insulating host phase, and allows us to estimate the lateral fraction of these puddles. We discuss the physics of EPS invoking a theoretical picture of oxygen-vacancy clustering, promoted by the magnetism of the localized Ti eg-electrons, and repelling of the mobile t2g-electrons from these clusters. Our results on the irradiation-tuned EPS elucidate the intrinsic one taking place at the stoichiometric LAO/STO interfaces.
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