19 research outputs found
Shape-resonant superconductivity in nanofilms: from weak to strong coupling
Ultrathin superconductors of different materials are becoming a powerful
platform to find mechanisms for enhancement of superconductivity, exploiting
shape resonances in different superconducting properties. Here we evaluate the
superconducting gap and its spatial profile, the multiple gap components, and
the chemical potential, of generic superconducting nanofilms, considering the
pairing attraction and its energy scale as tunable parameters, from weak to
strong coupling, at fixed electron density. Superconducting properties are
evaluated at mean field level as a function of the thickness of the nanofilm,
in order to characterize the shape resonances in the superconducting gap. We
find that the most pronounced shape resonances are generated for weakly coupled
superconductors, while approaching the strong coupling regime the shape
resonances are rounded by a mixing of the subbands due to the large energy gaps
extending over large energy scales. Finally, we find that the spatial profile,
transverse to the nanofilm, of the superconducting gap acquires a flat behavior
in the shape resonance region, indicating that a robust and uniform multigap
superconducting state can arise at resonance.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to the Proceedings of the Superstripes
2016 conferenc
Observation of shell effects in superconducting nanoparticles of Sn
In a zero-dimensional superconductor, quantum size effects(QSE) not only set
the limit to superconductivity, but are also at the heart of new phenomena such
as shell effects, which have been predicted to result in large enhancements of
the superconducting energy gap. Here, we experimentally demonstrate these QSE
through measurements on single, isolated Pb and Sn nanoparticles. In both
systems superconductivity is ultimately quenched at sizes governed by the
dominance of the quantum fluctuations of the order parameter. However, before
the destruction of superconductivity, in Sn nanoparticles we observe giant
oscillations in the superconducting energy gap with particle size leading to
enhancements as large as 60%. These oscillations are the first experimental
proof of coherent shell effects in nanoscale superconductors. Contrarily, we
observe no such oscillations in the gap for Pb nanoparticles, which is ascribed
to the suppression of shell effects for shorter coherence lengths. Our study
paves the way to exploit QSE in boosting superconductivity in low-dimensional
systems