Using a dual-mode STM-AFM microscope operating below 50mK we measured the Local Density of States (LDoS) along small normal wires connected at both ends to superconductors with different phases. We observe that a uniform minigap can develop in the whole normal wire and in the superconductors near the interfaces. The minigap depends periodically on the phase difference. The quasiclassical theory of superconductivity applied to a simplified 1D model geometry accounts well for the data.
Heavy holes confined in quantum dots are predicted to be promising candidates for the realization of spin qubits with long coherence times. Here we focus on such heavy-hole states confined in Germanium hut wires. By tuning the growth density of the latter we can realize a T-like structure between two neighboring wires. Such a structure allows the realization of a charge sensor, which is electrostatically and tunnel coupled to a quantum dot, with charge-transfer signals as high as 0.3e. By integrating the T-like structure into a radio-frequency reflectometry setup, single-shot measurements allo…
The introduction and control of ferromagnetism in graphene opens up a range of new directions for fundamental and applied studies. Several approaches have been pursued so far, such as introduction of defects, functionalization with adatoms, and shaping of graphene into nanoribbons with well-defined zigzag edges. A more robust and less invasive method utilizes the introduction of an exchange interaction by a ferromagnetic insulator in proximity with graphene. Here we present a direct measurement of the exchange interaction in room temperature ferromagnetic graphene. We study the spin transport …
Using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, we have studied the proximity effect at the interfaces between superconducting Pb island structures and metallic Pb-induced striped-incommensurate phase formed on a Si(111) substrate. Our real-space observation revealed that the step structures on the two-dimensional metallic layer exhibit significant roles on the propagation of the superconducting pair correlation; the proximity effect is terminated by the steps, and in the confined area by the interface and the steps the effect is enhanced. The observed results are explain…
We reveal that the interplay between Rashba spin-orbit coupling and proximity-induced magnetization in a two-dimensional electron gas leads to peculiar transport properties and large anisotropy of magnetoresistance. While the related tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance (TAMR) has been extensively studied before, we predict an effect with a different origin arising from the evolution of a resonant condition with the in-plane rotation of magnetization and having a much larger magnitude. The resonances in the tunneling emerge from a spin-parity-time symmetry of the scattering states. However,…
The conductance profiles of magnetic transition metal atoms, such as Fe, Co and Mn, deposited on surfaces and probed by a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), provide detailed information on the magnetic excitations of such nano-magnets. In general the profiles are symmetric with respect to the applied bias. However a set of recent experiments has shown evidence for inherent asymmetries when either a normal or a spin-polarized STM tip is used. In order to explain such asymmetries here we expand our previously developed perturbative approach to electron-spin scattering to the spin- polarized ca…
We report low-temperature transport measurements performed on a planar Nb-InGaAs-Nb proximity Josephson junction hosting a gate-defined lateral quantum dot in the weak-link. We first study quasiparticle and Josephson transport through the open junction, when all gates are grounded. When the quantum dot is defined in the normal region by electrostatic depletion, cotunneling spectroscopy allows us to directly probe the energy gap induced in the two dimensional electron gas. Our data show good qualitative agreement with a model describing resonant tunneling through an Anderson impurity connected …
Graphene quantum dots are considered as promising alternatives to quantum dots in III-V semiconductors, e.g., for the use as spin qubits due to their consistency made of light atoms including spin-free nuclei which both imply relatively long spin decoherene times. However, this potential has not been realized in experiments so far, most likely, due to a missing control of the edge configurations of the quantum dots. Thus, a more fundamental investigation of Graphene quantum dots appears to be necessary including a full control of the wave function properties most favorably during transport spe…
Momentum resolved magneto-tunnelling spectroscopy is performed at a single sharp quantum Hall edge. We directly probe the structure of individual integer quantum Hall (QH) edge modes, and find that an epitaxially overgrown cleaved edge realizes the sharp edge limit, where the Chklovskii picture relevant for soft etched or gated edges is no longer valid. The Fermi wavevector in the probe quantum well probes the real-space position of the QH edge modes, and reveals inter-channel distances smaller than both the magnetic length and the Bohr radius. We quantitatively describe the lineshape of princ…
By exploiting proximity coupling, we probe the spin state of the surface layers of CrI3, a van der Waals magnetic semiconductor, by measuring the induced magnetoresistance (MR) of Pt in Pt/CrI3 nano-devices. We fabricate the devices with clean and stable interfaces by placing freshly exfoliated CrI3 flake atop pre-patterned thin Pt strip and encapsulating the Pt/CrI3 heterostructure with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) in a protected environment. In devices consisting of a wide range of CrI3 thicknesses (30 to 150 nm), we observe that an abrupt upward jump in Pt MR emerge at a 2 T magnetic field…
We investigate the properties of complex mesoscopic superconducting-normal hybrid devices, Andreev-Interferometers in the case, where the current is proped through a superconducting tunneling contact whereas the proximity effect is generated by a transparent SN-interface. We show within the quasiclassical Green's functions technique, how the fundamental SNIS-element of the such structures can be mapped onto an effective S$^\prime$IS-junction, where S$^\prime$ is the proximised material with an effective energy gap $E_g<Δ$. We propose the Andreev-Interferometer, where $E_g$ can be tuned by an e…
A carbon nanotube (CNT) tip was fabricated at the apex of an etched tungsten wire by chemical vapor deposition and used for scanning tunneling microscopy. The honeycomb lattice of graphite in the STM images was resolved with a CNT tip at T=79 K. The superior spatial resolution originating from the p orbitals of a CNT is responsible for the image of the honeycomb lattice of graphite in the STM images. The CNT tips are useful to image samples whose lattice constants are small and to get orbital information in samples with orbital ordering due to their superior spatial resolution with the sharp p…
The proximity effect between a superconductor and a highly diffusive two-dimensional metal was revealed in a Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy experiment. The in-situ elaborated samples consisted of superconducting single crystalline Pb islands interconnected by a non-superconducting atomically thin disordered Pb wetting layer. In the vicinity of each superconducting island the wetting layer acquires specific tunneling characteristics which reflect the interplay between the proximity-induced superconductivity and the inherent electron correlations of this ultimate diffusive two-dimensional metal…
The high tunability of the density of states of graphene makes it an ideal probe of quantum transport in different regimes. In particular, the supercurrent that can flow through a non-superconducting (N) material connected to two superconducting electrodes, crucially depends on the lenghth of the N relative to the superconducting coherence length. Using graphene as the N material we have investigated the full range of the superconducting proximity effect, from short to long diffusive junctions. By combining several S/graphene/S samples with different contacts and lengths, and measuring their g…
We measured the shot noise in fully epitaxial Fe/MgAl2OX/Fe-based magnetic tunneling junctions (MTJs). While the Fano factor to characterize the shot noise is very close to unity in the antiparallel configuration, it is reduced to 0.98 in the parallel configuration. This observation shows the sub-Poissonian process of electron tunneling in the parallel configuration, indicating the coherent tunneling through the spinel-based tunneling barrier of the MTJ.
The effect of hydrogenation on the topography and the electronic properties of graphene and graphite surfaces are studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. The surfaces are chemically modified using Ar/H2 plasma. Analyzing thousands of scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements we determine that the hydrogen chemisorption on the surface of graphite/graphene opens on average an energy band gap of 0.4 eV around the Fermi level. We find that although the plasma treatment modifies the surface topography in a non-reversible way, the change in the electronic properties can be reve…
We studied the proximity effect between a superconductor (Nb) and a diluted ferromagnetic alloy (CuNi) in a bilayer geometry. We measured the local density of states on top of the ferromagnetic layer, which thickness varies on each sample, with a very low temperature Scanning Tunneling Microscope. The measured spectra display a very high homogeneity. The analysis of the experimental data shows the need to take into account an additional scattering mechanism. By including in the Usadel equations the effect of the spin relaxation in the ferromagnetic alloy, we obtain a good description of the ex…
We simulate the localized surface plasmon resonances of an Au nanoparticle within tunneling proximity of a Au substrate and demonstrate that the modes may be identified with those responsible for light emission from a scanning tunneling microscope. Relative to the modes of an isolated nanoparticle these modes show significant red-shifting, extending further into the infrared with increasing radius, primarily due to a proximity-induced lowering of the effective bulk plasmon frequency. Spatial mapping of the field enhancement factor shows an oscillatory variation of the field, absent in the case…
Epitaxial graphene grown on transition metal surfaces typically exhibits a moiré pattern due to the lattice mismatch between graphene and the underlying metal surface. We use both scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments to probe the electronic and topographic contrast of the graphene moiré on the Ir(111) surface. While STM topography is influenced by the local density of states close to the Fermi energy and the local tunneling barrier height, AFM is capable of yielding the 'true' surface topography once the background force arising from the van der Waa…
We present high resolution tunneling spectroscopy data at very low temperatures on superconducting nanostructures of lead built with an STM. By applying magnetic fields, superconductivity is restricted to length scales of the order of the coherence length. We measure the tunneling conductance and analyze the phonon structure and the low energy DOS. We demonstrate the influence of the geometry of the system on the magnetic field dependence of the tunneling density of states, which is gapless in a large range of fields. The behavior of the features in the tunneling conductance associated to phon…
We consider a new kind of superconducting proximity effect created by the tunneling of "spin split" Cooper pairs between two conventional superconductors connected by a normal conductor containing a quantum dot. The difference compared to the usual superconducting proximity effect is that the spin states of the tunneling Cooper pairs are split into singlet and triplet components by the electron spin-orbit coupling, which is assumed to be active in the normal conductor only. We demonstrate that the supercurrent carried by the spin-split Cooper pairs can be manipulated both mechanically and elec…
We consider the proximity effect in a normal dot coupled to a bulk superconducting reservoir by the tunnel contact with large normal conductance. Coulomb interaction in the dot suppresses the proximity minigap induced in the normal part of the system. We find exact expressions for the thermodynamic and tunneling minigaps as functions of the junction's capacitance. The tunneling minigap interpolates between its proximity-induced value in the regime of weak Coulomb interaction to the Coulomb gap in the regime of strong interaction. In the intermediate case a non-universal two-step structure of t…
Pseudospin, an additional degree of freedom related to the honeycomb structure of graphene, is responsible of many of the outstanding electronic properties found in this material. This article provides a clear understanding of how such pseudospin impacts the quasiparticle interferences of monolayer (ML) and bilayer (BL) graphene measured by low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. We have used this technique to map, with very high energy and space resolution, the spatial modulations of the local density of states of ML and BL graphene epitaxialy grown on SiC(0001), in pr…
We have investigated the magnetoresistance of Permalloy (Ni80Fe20) films with thicknesses ranging from a single monolayer to 12 nm, grown on Al2O3, MgO and SiO2 substrates. Growth and transport measurements were carried out under cryogenic conditions in UHV. Applying in-plane magnetic vector fields up to 100 mT, the magnetotransport properties are ascertained during growth. With increasing thickness the films exhibit a gradual transition from tunneling magnetoresistance to anisotropic magnetoresistance. This corresponds to the evolution of the film structure from separated small islands to a n…
We report on spatial measurements of the superconducting proximity effect in epitaxial graphene induced by a graphene-superconductor interface. Superconducting aluminum films were grown on epitaxial multilayer graphene on SiC. The aluminum films were discontinuous with networks of trenches in the film morphology reaching down to exposed graphene terraces. Scanning tunneling spectra measured on the graphene terraces show a clear decay of the superconducting energy gap with increasing separation from the graphene-aluminum edges. The spectra were well described by Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) …
We study a two-terminal graphene Josephson junction with contacts shaped to form a narrow constriction, less than 100nm in length. The contacts are made from type II superconducting contacts and able to withstand magnetic fields high enough to reach the quantum Hall (QH) regime in graphene. In this regime, the device conductance is determined by edge states, plus the contribution from the constricted region. In particular, the constriction area can support supercurrents up to fields of ~2.5T. Moreover, enhanced conductance is observed through a wide range of magnetic fields and gate voltages. …
We observe proximity-induced superconductivity in the \textit{in situ} prepared heterostructures constructed by topological insulator Bi$_{2}$Te$_{3}$ thin films and high-temperature cuprate superconductors Bi$_{2}$Sr$_{2}$CaCu$_{2}$O$_{8+δ}$. The superconducting gap maximum is about 7.6 meV on the surface of Bi$_{2}$Te$_{3}$ thin films with a thickness of two quintuple layers, and the gap value decreases with an increase in the film thickness. Moreover, the quasiparticle interference data show a clear evidence of a twofold symmetric superconducting gap with gap minima along one pair of the pr…
The interrelation between spin and charge in semiconductors leads to interesting effects, e.g., the Rashba-type spin-orbit splitting or the exchange enhancement. These properties are proposed to be used in applications such as spin transistors or spin qubits. Probing them on the local scale with the ultimate spatial resolution of the scanning tunneling microscope addresses their susceptibility to disorder directly. Here we review the results obtained on two-dimensional semiconductor systems (2DES). We describe the preparation and characterization of an adequate 2DES which can be probed by scan…
Ballistic conductance through a single atom adsorbed on a metallic surface and probed by a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip can be decomposed into eigenchannel contributions, which can be potentially obtained from shot noise measurements. Our density functional theory calculations provide evidence that transmission probabilities of these eigenchannels encode information on the modifications of the adatom's local density of states caused by its interaction with the STM tip. In the case of open shell atoms, this can be revealed in nonmonotonic behavior of the eigenchannel's transmissions …
The electroluminescence of a polythiophene wire suspended between two metallic electrodes is probed using a scanning tunneling microscope. Under positive sample voltage, the spectral and voltage dependencies of the emitted light are consistent with the fluorescence of the wire junction mediated by localized plasmons. This emission is strongly attenuated for the opposite polarity. Both emission mechanism and polarity dependence are similar to what occurs in organic light emitting diodes (OLED) but at the level of a single molecular wire.
A ferromagnetic insulator attached to a superconductor is known to induce an exchange splitting of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) singularity by a magnitude proportional to the magnetization, and penetrating into the superconductor to a depth comparable with the superconducting coherence length. We study this long-range magnetic proximity effect in EuS/Al bilayers and find that the exchange splitting of the BCS peaks is present already in the unpolarized state of the ferromagnetic insulator (EuS), and is being further enhanced when magnetizing the sample by a magnetic field. The measureme…
We study the conductance of a junction between the normal and superconducting segments of a nanowire, both of which are subjected to spin-orbit coupling and an external magnetic field. We directly compare the transport properties of the nanowire assuming two different models for the superconducting segment: one where we put superconductivity by hand into the wire, and one where superconductivity is induced through a tunneling junction with a bulk s-wave superconductor. While these two models are equivalent at low energies and at weak coupling between the nanowire and the superconductor, we sho…
Detection of a single nuclear spin constitutes an outstanding problem in different fields of physics such as quantum computing or magnetic imaging. Here we show that the energy levels of a single nuclear spin can be measured by means of inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy (IETS). We consider two different systems, a magnetic adatom probed with STM and a single Bi dopant in a Silicon nanotransistor. We find that the hyperfine coupling opens new transport channels which can be resolved at experimentally accessible temperatures. Our simulations evince that IETS yield information about the o…
Magnetic adsorbates on superconductors induce a Kondo resonance outside and Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) bound states inside the superconducting energy gap. When probed by scanning tunneling spectroscopy, the associated differential-conductance spectra frequently exhibit characteristic bias-voltage asymmetries. Here, we observe correlated variations of Kondo and YSR asymmetries across an Fe-porphyrin molecule adsorbed on Pb(111). We show that both asymmetries originate in interfering tunneling paths via a spin-carrying orbital and the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO). Strong evidence for th…
Josephson oscillations generated by a SQUID were used to measure photon assisted tunneling in a superconducting single electron tunneling (SET) transistor. The SQUID was fabricated only a few microns from the SET transistor. The close proximity of the generator to the SET transistor allowed for a continuous sweep of the excitation frequency from 10 GHz to 190 GHz. The amplitude of the Josephson oscillations were tuned by adjusting the flux through the SQUID loop while the frequency was independently adjusted by controlling the bias voltage across the SQUID. Current peaks which could be attribu…
Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals heterostructures serve as a promising platform to exploit various physical phenomena in a diverse range of novel spintronic device applications. The efficient spin injection is the prerequisite for these devices. The recent discovery of magnetic 2D materials leads to the possibility of fully 2D van der Waals spintronics devices by implementing spin injection through magnetic proximity effect (MPE). Here, we report the investigation of magnetic proximity effect in 2D CrBr3/graphene van der Waals heterostructures, which is probed by Zeeman spin Hall effect thro…
We present radio-frequency thermometry based on a tunnel junction between a superconductor and proximitized normal metal. It allows operation in a wide range of biasing conditions. We demonstrate that the standard finite-bias quasiparticle tunneling thermometer suffers from large dissipation and loss of sensitivity at low temperatures, whereas thermometry based on zero bias anomaly avoids both these problems. For these reasons the latter method is suitable down to lower temperatures, here to about 25 mK. Both thermometers are shown to measure the same local temperature of the electrons in the …
Metal silicides formed by means of thermal annealing processes are employed as contact materials in microelectronics. Control of the structure of silicide/silicon interfaces becomes a critical issue when the device characteristic size is reduced below a few tens of nanometers. Here we report on silicide clustering occurring within the channel of PtSi/Si/PtSi Schottky barrier transistors. This phenomenon is investigated through atomistic simulations and low-temperature resonant tunneling spectroscopy. Our results provide evidence for the segregation of a PtSi cluster with a diameter of a few na…
We performed tunneling spectroscopy measurements of graphene coupled to niobium/niobium-nitride superconducting electrodes. Due to the proximity effect, the graphene density of states depends on the phase difference between the superconductors and exhibits a hard induced gap at zero phase, consistent with a continuum of Andreev bound states. At energies larger than the superconducting gap, we observed phase-dependent energy levels displaying the Coulomb blockade effect, which are interpreted as arising from spurious quantum dots, presumably embedded in the heterostructures and coupled to the p…
Recent tunneling experiments on InSb hybrid superconductor-semiconductor devices have provided hope for a stabilization of Majorana edge modes in a spin-orbit quantum wire subject to a magnetic field and superconducting proximity effect. Connecting the experimental scenario with a microscopic description poses challenges of different kind, such as accounting for the effect of interactions on the tunneling properties of the wire. We develop a density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) analysis of the tunneling spectra of interacting Majorana chains, which we explicate for the Kitaev chain mode…
We present a theory of non-equilibrium superconducting proximity effect in an interacting quantum dot induced by a time-dependent tunnel coupling between dot and a superconducting lead. The proximity effect, that is established when the driving frequency fulfills a gate-voltage-dependent resonance condition, can be probed through the tunneling current into a weakly-coupled normal lead. Furthermore, we propose to generate and manipulate coherent superpositions of quantum-dot states with electron numbers differing by two, by applying pulsed oscillatory variations to the couplings between dot and…
Using low-temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy applied to the Cs-induced two-dimensional electron system (2DES) on p-type InSb(110), we probe electron-electron interaction effects in the quantum Hall regime. The 2DES is decoupled from p-doped bulk states and exhibits spreading resistance within the insulating quantum Hall phases. In quantitative agreement with calculations we find an exchange enhancement of the spin splitting. Moreover, we observe that both the spatially averaged as well as the local density of states feature a characteristic Coulomb gap at the Fermi level. These result…
We study the local density of states (LDOS) in systems of Luttinger-liquid nanowires connected to a common mesoscopic superconducting island, in which Majorana bound states give rise to different types of topological Kondo effects. We show that electron interactions enhance the low-energy LDOS in the leads close to the island, with unusual exponents due to Kondo physics that can be probed in tunneling experiments.
By combining very low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy on a TiN film we have observed a non uniform state comprising of superconducting (S) and normal (N) areas. The local density of states displays a spatial dependence between S and N different from the usual proximity effect. We conclude that mesoscopic fluctuations might play a major role in accordance with recent theories on superconductor-normal metal quantum transition.
Graphene is a truly two-dimensional material with exceptional electronic, mechanical, and optical properties. As such, it consists of surface only and can be probed by the well developed surface-science techniques as, e.g., scanning tunneling microscopy. This method bridges the gap between the surface science community and the electronic device community and might lead to novel combined approaches. Here, I review some of the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) experiments on monolayer graphene samples. I will concentrate on graphene samples deposited on insulating substr…
We theoretically study a tunneling effect in a two-dimensional Dirac semimetal with two Dirac points protected by non-symmorphic symmetries. The tunnel barrier can be arranged by a magnetic exchange potential which opens a gap at the Dirac points which can be induced by a magnetic proximity effect of a ferromagnetic insulator. We found that the tunnel decay length increases with a decrease in the strength of the spin-orbit coupling, and moreover the dependence is attributed to the correlation of sublattice and spin degree of freedoms which lead to symmetry-protected Dirac points. The tunnel pr…
One-dimensional wires with Rashba spin-orbit coupling, magnetic field, and strong electron-electron interactions are described by a spiral Luttinger liquid model. We develop a theory to investigate the tunneling density of states into a spiral Luttinger liquid under the proximity effect with superconductors. This approach provides a way to disentangle the delicate interplay between superconducting correlations and strong electron interactions. If the wire-superconductor boundary is dominated by Andreev reflection, we find that in the vicinity of the interface the zero-bias tunneling anomaly re…
We investigate superconducting proximity effect in clean ferromagnetic layers with rough boundaries. The subgap density of states is formed by Andreev bound states at energies which depend on trajectory length and the ferromagnetic exchange field. At energies above the gap, the spectrum is governed by resonant scattering states. The resulting density of states, measurable by tunneling spectroscopy, exhibits a rich structure, which allows to connect the theoretical parameters from experiments.
The effect of the barrier on the proximity effect in normal-superconductor junction is analyzed. A general criterion for the barrier, though large, to be effectively transparent, is given. This criterion is applied to both the conductance of a disordered NS junction (reflectionless tunneling) and the density of states across it, showing that both phenomena stem from the same physical effect.
We develop a theory for the proximity effect in superconductor-semiconductor-normal metal tunneling structures, which have recently been extensively studied experimentally, leading to the observation of transport signatures consistent with the predicted zero-energy Majorana bound states. We show that our model for the semiconductor nanowire having multiple occupied subbands with different transmission probabilities through the barrier reproduces the observed "soft-gap" behavior associated with substantial subgap tunneling conductance. We study the manifestations of the soft gap phenomenon both…
We performed the local spectroscopy of a Normal-metal--Superconductor (N-S) junction with the help of a very low temperature (60 mK) Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM). The spatial dependence of the local density of states was probed locally in the vicinity of the N-S interface. We observed spectra with a fully-developed gap in the regions where a thin normal metal layer caps the superconductor dot. Close to the S metal edge, a clear pseudo-gap shows up, which is characteristic of the superconducting proximity effect in the case of a long normal metal. The experimental results are compared to…
We demonstrate simultaneous measurements of DC transport properties and flux noise of a hybrid superconducting magnetometer based on the proximity effect (superconducting quantum interference proximity transistor, SQUIPT). The noise is probed by a cryogenic amplifier operating in the frequency range of a few MHz. In our non-optimized device, we achieve minimum flux noise $\sim 4\;μΦ_0/Hz^{1/2}$, set by the shot noise of the probe tunnel junction. The flux noise performance can be improved by further optimization of the SQUIPT parameters, primarily minimization of the proximity junction length …
We show that in quantum dots the physical quantities probed by local tunneling spectroscopies, namely the quasi-particle wavefunctions of interacting electrons, can considerably deviate from their single-particle counterparts as an effect of Coulomb correlation. From the exact solution of the few-particle Hamiltonian for prototype dots, we find that such deviations are crucial to predict wavefunction images at low electron densities or high magnetic fields.
We have studied the electron transport properties of topological insulator-related material Bi2Se3 near the superconducting Pb-Bi2Se3 interface, and found that a superconducting state is induced over an extended volume in Bi2Se3. This state can carry a Josephson supercurrent, and demonstrates a gap-like structure in the conductance spectra as probed by a normal-metal electrode. The establishment of the gap is not by confining the electrons into a narrow space close to the superconductor-normal metal interface, as previously observed in other systems, but presumably via electron-electron attrac…
We have measured the evolution of the tunneling density of states (DOS) in superconductor/ferromagnet (S/F) bilayers with increasing F-layer thickness, where F in our experiment is the strong ferromagnet Ni. As a function of increasing Ni thickness, we detect multiple oscillations in the DOS at the Fermi energy from differential conductance measurements. The features in the DOS associated with the proximity effect change from normal to inverted twice as the Ni thickness increases from 1 to 5 nm.