Low Temperature Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy Of Proximity Effect Junctions Formed On The Layered Superconductors Nbse2 And Bi2sr2ca1cu2o8 PDF Download

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.