2,720 research outputs found
Geometric dependence of Nb-BiTe-Nb topological Josephson junction transport parameters
Superconductor-topological insulator-superconductor Josephson junctions have
been fabricated in order to study the width dependence of the critical current,
normal state resistance and flux periodicity of the critical current modulation
in an external field. Previous literature reports suggest anomalous scaling in
topological junctions due to the presence of Majorana bound states. However,
for most realised devices, one would expect that trivial -periodic
Andreev levels dominate transport. We also observe anomalous scaling behaviour
of junction parameters, but the scaling can be well explained by mere geometric
effects, such as the parallel bulk conductivity shunt and flux focusing
Superconducting Mg-B films by pulsed laser deposition in an in-situ two-step process using multi-component targets
Superconducting thin films have been prepared in a two-step in-situ process,
using the Mg-B plasma generated by pulsed laser ablation. The target was
composed of a mixture of Mg and MgB2 powders to compensate for the volatility
of Mg and therefore to ensure a high Mg content in the film. The films were
deposited at temperatures ranging from room temperature to 300 degrees C
followed by a low-pressure in-situ annealing procedure. Various substrates have
been used and diverse ways to increase the Mg content into the film were
applied. The films show a sharp transition in the resistance and have a zero
resistance transition temperature of 22-24 K.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Applied Physics Letter
Experimental realization of SQUIDs with topological insulator junctions
We demonstrate topological insulator (BiTe) dc SQUIDs, based on
superconducting Nb leads coupled to nano-fabricated Nb-BiTe-Nb
Josephson junctions. The high reproducibility and controllability of the
fabrication process allows the creation of dc SQUIDs with parameters that are
in agreement with design values. Clear critical current modulation of both the
junctions and the SQUID with applied magnetic fields have been observed. We
show that the SQUIDs have a periodicity in the voltage-flux characteristic of
, of relevance to the ongoing pursuit of realizing interferometers for
the detection of Majorana fermions in superconductor- topological insulator
structures
Electronically coupled complementary interfaces between perovskite band insulators
Perovskite oxides exhibit a plethora of exceptional electronic properties,
providing the basis for novel concepts of oxide-electronic devices. The
interest in these materials is even extended by the remarkable characteristics
of their interfaces. Studies on single epitaxial connections between the two
wide-bandgap insulators LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 have revealed them to be either
high-mobility electron conductors or insulating, depending on the atomic
stacking sequences. In the latter case they are conceivably positively charged.
For device applications, as well as for basic understanding of the interface
conduction mechanism, it is important to investigate the electronic coupling of
closely-spaced complementary interfaces. Here we report the successful
realization of such electronically coupled complementary interfaces in SrTiO3 -
LaAlO3 thin film multilayer structures, in which the atomic stacking sequence
at the interfaces was confirmed by quantitative transmission electron
microscopy. We found a critical separation distance of 6 perovskite unit cell
layers, corresponding to approximately 2.3 nm, below which a decrease of the
interface conductivity and carrier density occurs. Interestingly, the high
carrier mobilities characterizing the separate electron doped interfaces are
found to be maintained in coupled structures down to sub-nanometer interface
spacing
Local probing of coupled interfaces between two-dimensional electron and hole gases in oxide heterostructures by variable-temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy
The electronic structure of an epitaxial oxide heterostructure containing two spatially separated two-dimensional conducting sheets, one electronlike (2DEG) and the other holelike (2DHG), has been investigated using variable temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy. Heterostructures of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 bilayers on (001)-oriented SrTiO3 (STO) substrates provide the unique possibility to study the coupling between subnanometer spaced conducting interfaces. The band gap increases dramatically at low temperatures due to a blocking of the transition from the conduction band of the STO substrate to the top of the valence band of the STO capping layer. This prevents the replenishment of the depleted electrons in the capping layer from the underlying 2DEG and enables charging of the 2DHG by applying a negative sample bias voltage within the band gap region. At low temperatures the 2DHG can be probed separately with the proposed experimental geometry, although the 2DEG is located less than 1 nm belo
Gate-tunable band structure of the LaAlO-SrTiO interface
The 2-dimensional electron system at the interface between LaAlO and
SrTiO has several unique properties that can be tuned by an externally
applied gate voltage. In this work, we show that this gate-tunability extends
to the effective band structure of the system. We combine a magnetotransport
study on top-gated Hall bars with self-consistent Schr\"odinger-Poisson
calculations and observe a Lifshitz transition at a density of
cm. Above the transition, the carrier density of one
of the conducting bands decreases with increasing gate voltage. This surprising
decrease is accurately reproduced in the calculations if electronic
correlations are included. These results provide a clear, intuitive picture of
the physics governing the electronic structure at complex oxide interfaces.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure
Evidence for Single-gap Superconductivity in Mg(B_{1-x}C_x)_2 Single Crystals with x=0.132 from Point-Contact Spectroscopy
We report the results of the first directional point-contact measurements in
Mg(B_{1-x}C_{x})_2 single crystals with 0.047 <= x <= 0.132. The two-gap
superconductivity typical of MgB_2 persists up to x=0.105. In this region, the
values of the gaps Delta_{sigma} and Delta_{pi} were determined by fitting the
Andreev-reflection conductance curves with a two-band Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk
(BTK) model, and confirmed by the single-band BTK fit of the sigma- and pi-band
conductances, separated by means of a magnetic field. At x=0.132, when T_{c}=19
K, we clearly observed for the first time the merging of the two gaps into one
of amplitude Delta~3 meV.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures. One figure and one panel added; text and
discussion update
Correlated enhancement of Hc2 and Jc in carbon nanotube-doped MgB2
The use of MgB2 in superconducting applications still awaits for the
development of a MgB2-based material where both current-carrying performance
and critical magnetic field are optimized simultaneously. We achieved this by
doping MgB2 with double-wall carbon nanotubes (DWCNT) as a source of carbon in
polycrystalline samples. The optimum nominal DWCNT content for increasing the
critical current density, Jc is in the range 2.5-10%at depending on field and
temperature. Record values of the upper critical field, Hc2(4K) = 41.9 T (with
extrapolated Hc2(0) ~ 44.4 T) are reached in a bulk sample with 10%at DWCNT
content. The measured Hc2 vs T in all samples are successfully described using
a theoretical model for a two-gap superconductor in the dirty limit first
proposed by Gurevich et al.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
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