Tunneling conductance of a clean normal metal/d-wave superconductor junction is studied by using the extended Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk formalism. We show that the conductance is significantly affected by the interface spin-orbit coupling of the Rashba type, which is inevitably present due to the asymmetry of the junction.
The tunneling conductance between a metal and a multiband s-wave superconductor with a thin layer of single-band s-wave superconductor sandwiched in between is examined in this paper. We show that an in-gap peak in conductance curve is found as a result of the formation of in-gap bound state between the single-band and multiband superconductor junctions if the phases of the superconducting order parameters of the multiband superconductor are frustrated. The implication of this result in determining the gap symmetry of the iron-based superconductors is discussed.
Fine structures in the tunneling spectra of superconductors have been widely used to identify fingerprints of the interaction responsible for Cooper pairing. Here we show that for scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) of Pb, the inclusion of inelastic tunneling processes is crucial for the proper interpretation of these fine structures. For STM the usual McMillan inversion algorithm of tunneling spectra must therefore be modified to include inelastic tunneling events, an insight that is crucial for the identification of the pairing glue in conventional and unconventional superconductors alike.
We investigate numerically the signatures of collective modes in the tunneling spectra of superconductors. The larger strength of the signatures observed in the high-Tc superconductors, as compared to classical low-Tc materials, is explained by the low dimensionality of these layered compounds. We also show that the strong-coupling structures are dips (zeros in the d2I/dV2 spectrum) in d-wave superconductors, rather than the steps (peaks in d2I/dV2) observed in classical s-wave superconductors. Finally we question the usefulness of effective density of states models for the analysis of tunneli…
The asymmetric tunneling in cuprate superconductors is studied based on the kinetic energy driven superconducting mechanism. By taking into account the interplay between the superconducting gap and normal-state pseudogap, the essential feature of the evolution of the asymmetric tunneling with doping and temperature is qualitatively reproduced. In particular, the asymmetry of the tunneling spectrum in the underdoped regime weakens with increasing doping, and then the symmetric tunneling spectrum recovers in the heavily overdoped regime. The theory also shows that the asymmetric tunneling is a n…
Within the tunneling Hamiltonian formulation for the eight-component spinors,the Josephson critical super-current has been calculated in a planar superconductor-normal graphene-superconductor junction. Coupling between superconductor regions and graphene is taken into account by a tunneling Hamiltonian which contains two types of tunneling, intra-valley and inter-valley tunneling. Within the present tunneling approach, we find that the contributions of two kinds of tunneling to the critical super-current, are completely separable. Therefore, it is possible to consider the effect of the inter-v…
We propose a model of quasiparticle tunneling across the high-$T_c$ superconductor-insulator-normal metal junction based on the different mechanisms for tunneling of electrons at positive bias and dissociating polaronic Cooper pairs and large polarons at negative bias, and the gap inhomogeneity (i.e., multi-gap) picture. We show that the main features of the tunneling spectra such as low-bias U- and V-shaped features, asymmetry and high-bias dip-hump features, their temperature and doping dependences, and shoulders inside the conductance peaks observed in high-$T_c$ cuprates arise naturally fr…
Tunneling conductance spectra of normal metal/insulator/superconductor (N/I/S) junctions are calculated to determine the potential of tunneling spectroscopy in investigations of topological superconductivity. Peculiar feature of topological superconductors is the formation of gapless edge states in them. Since the conductance of N/I/S junctions is sensitive to the formation of these edge states, topological superconductivity can be identified through edge-state detection. Herein, the effects of Fermi surface anisotropy and an applied magnetic field on the conductance spectra are analyzed to ga…
We study the tunneling conductance of a clean normal metal/chiral p-wave superconductor junction using the extended Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk formalism. It is shown that the spin-orbit coupling of the Rashba type that is present near the interface causes the subgap conductance peaks associated with the Andreev surface bound states to shift to a nonzero bias. We also investigate the effect of the Fermi wavevector mismatch between the normal metal and the superconductor.
We have derived new boundary conditions on wave function at the normal metal / superconductor (NS) interface beyond effective mass approximation. These conditions are based on tight-binding approach and enable one to formulate quantitative model for tunneling spectroscopy of superconductors with complex non-parabolic energy spectra. The model is applied to superconductors with unconventional pairing and with multiband electronic structure. In the case of single band unconventional superconductors this model provides known conductance formula (Phys. Rev. Lett. 74 3451 1995), but with generalize…
Recent advances in the development of Josephson scanning tunneling spectroscopy (JSTS) have opened a new path for the exploration of unconventional superconductors. We demonstrate that the critical current, $I_c$, measured via JSTS, images the spatial form of the superconducting order parameter in $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave superconductors around defects and in the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state. Moreover, we show that $I_c$ probes the existence of phase-incoherent superconducting correlations in the pseudo-gap region of the cuprate superconductors, thus providing unprecedented insight into it…
We present very low temperature (0.15 K) scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy experiments in the layered superconductor LaSb$_2$. We obtain topographic microscopy images with surfaces showing hexagonal and square atomic size patterns, and observe in the tunneling conductance a superconducting gap. We find well defined quasiparticle peaks located at a bias voltage comparable to the weak coupling s-wave BCS expected gap value (0.17 meV). The amount of states at the Fermi level is however large and the curves are significantly broadened. We find T$_c$ of 1.2 K by following the tunneling…
We discuss electric transport through a point contact which bridges Majorana fermion modes appearing at edges of two helical superconductors. The contents focus on effects of interference and interaction unique to the Majorana fermions and role of spin-orbit interaction (SOI). Besides the Josephson current, the quasi-particle conductance depends sensitively on phase difference and relative helicity between the two superconductors. The interaction among the Majorana fermions causes the power-law temperature dependences of conductance for various tunneling channels. Especially, in the presence o…
We have analyzed scanning tunneling spectra of two electron-doped cuprates Pr0.88LaCe0.12CuO4 (Tc = 21 K and 24 K) and compared them with tunneling spectrum of hole-doped La1.84Sr0.16CuO4 and effective electron-boson spectral function of hole-doped La1.97Sr0.03CuO4 (extracted from angle-resolved photoemission spectrum). We have also analyzed tunneling spectra and angle-resolved photoemission spectra for hole-doped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8. These results unambiguously rule out magnetic pairing mechanism in both electron- and hole-doped cuprates and support polaronic/bipolaronic superconductivity in hole-d…
We study macroscopic quantum tunneling of interfaces separating normal and superconducting regions in type-I superconductors. Mathematical model is developed, that describes dissipative quantum escape of a two-dimensional manifold from a planar potential well. It corresponds to, e.g., a current-driven quantum depinning of the interface from a grain boundary or from artificially manufactured pinning layer. Effective action is derived and instantons of the equations of motion are investigated. Crossover between thermal activation and quantum tunneling is studied and the crossover temperature is …
We discuss the surface Andreev bound states in Fe-based superconductors with the use of an effective five-band model and investigate the surface-angle dependence of the tunneling spectroscopy by a quasiclassical approach for an isotropic and an anisotropic /pm s-wave gap superconductivity. We show that information on the normal state is important for the Andreev bound state and its peak positions do not depend on the gap amplitude anisotropy.
Domain walls can be formed in superconductors with a discrete degeneracy of the ground state, for instance, due to the breaking of time reversal symmetry. We study all cases where the formation of domain walls is possible in a tetragonal superconductor with the point group $D_{4h}$. We discuss both triplet and mixed singlet order parameters. It is found that in all cases the domain walls support subgap Andreev bound states, whose energies strongly depend on the direction of semiclassical propagation. The bound state contribution to the density of quasiparticle states exhibits peculiar features…
We use scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/S) to elucidate the Cooper pairing of the iron pnictide superconductor Ba0.6K0.4Fe2As2. By a cold-cleaving technique, we obtain atomically resolved termination surfaces with different layer identities. Remarkably, we observe that the low-energy tunneling spectrum related to superconductivity has an unprecedented dependence on the layer-identity. By cross-referencing with the angle-revolved photoemission results and the tunneling data of LiFeAs, we find that tunneling on each termination surface probes superconductivity through selecting di…
We establish in a combination of ab initio theory and experiments that the tunneling process in scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy on the A-122 iron pnictide superconductors - in this case BaFe$_{2-x}$Co$_x$As$_2$ - involve a strong adatom filtering of the differential conductance from the near-EF Fe3d states, which in turn originates from the top-most sub-surface Fe layer of the crystal. The calculations show that the dominance of surface Ba-related tunneling pathways leaves fingerprints found in the experimental differential conductance data, including large particle-hole asymmetry a…
We report experimental evidence of the effect of an applied magnetic field on the non-thermal magnetic relaxation in a disk-shaped type-I lead superconductor. The time evolution of the irreversible magnetization proves to be logarithmic for a wide range of temperatures and magnetic field values along the descending branch of the hysteresis cycle. When the intensity of the magnetic field increases, the crossover temperature separating the thermal and non-thermal regimes of magnetic relaxation is found to decrease, whereas the rate at which such relaxation occurs is observed to increase. These r…
We used high-resolution scanning tunneling spectroscopy to study the hole-doped iron pnictide superconductor Ba$_{0.6}$K$_{0.4}$Fe$_{2}$As$_{2}$ ($T_c=38$ K). Features of a bosonic excitation (mode) are observed in the measured quasiparticle density of states. The bosonic features are intimately associated with the superconducting order parameter and have a mode energy of $\sim$14 meV, similar to the spin resonance measured by inelastic neutron scattering. These results indicate a strong electron-spin excitation coupling in iron pictnide superconductors, similar to that in high-$T_c$ copper ox…
The influence of the spin-dependent phase shifts (SDPS) associated to the electronic reflection and transmission amplitudes acquired by electrons upon scattering on the potential barrier on the Andreev reflection probability of electron and hole excitations for a ferromagnet/isolator/d-wave superconductor (FIS) contact and the charge conductance of the FIS contact is studied. Various superconductor orientations are considered. It is found that SDPS can suppress the zero-potential peak and restore finite-potential peaks in the charge conductance of the F/I/d-wave superconductor contact for the …
Based on a four-layered self-doped $t-J$ type model and the slave-boson mean-field approach, we study theoretically the superconductivity in the electron-doped and hole-doped layers. The neighbor layers are coupled through both the single electron interlayer hopping and pair tunneling effect. The superconducting gap magnitude for the electron-doped band is nearly twice of that of the hole-doped one, which contrasts to our previous understanding of the electron-hole asymmetry in high-T$_c$ superconductors but consistent with recent angle-resolved-photoemission-spectroscopy experiments in four-l…