Observation of Coulomb blockade and Coulomb staircases in superconducting Pr0.8Sr0.2NiO2 films

Wang，Rui Feng1; Xiong，Yan Ling1; Yan，Hang1; Hu，Xiaopeng1; Osada，Motoki2,3; Li，Danfeng4; Hwang，Harold Y.2,3; Song，Can Li1,5; Ma，Xu Cun1,5; Xue，Qi Kun1,5,6

2023-03-15

10.1103/PhysRevB.107.115411

Physical Review B   Impact Factor & Quartile

2469-9950

2469-9969

Motivated by the discovery of superconductivity in the infinite-layer nickelate family, we report an experimental endeavor to clean the surface of nickelate superconductor Pr0.8Sr0.2NiO2 films by Ar+ ion sputtering and subsequent annealing, and we study their electronic structures by cryogenic scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. The annealed surfaces are characterized by nanosized clusters and Coulomb staircases with periodicity inversely proportional to the projected area of the nanoclusters, consistent with a double-barrier tunneling junction model. Moreover, the dynamical Coulomb blockade effects are observed and result in well-defined energy gaps around the Fermi level, which correlate closely with the specific configuration of the junctions. These Coulomb blockade-related phenomena provide an alternative plausible cause of the observed gap structure that should be considered in the spectroscopic understanding of nickelate superconductors with the nanoclustered surface.

SCI

English

Others

National Key R&D Program of China[2022YFA1403100] ; National Natural Science Foundation of China[12134008] ; US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, under Con- tract[DE-AC02-76SF00515] ; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems Ini- tiative[GBMF9072] ; Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) through ECS[CityU 21301221] ; National Science Foundation of China[CityU 11309622] ; null[NSFC12174325]

Materials Science ; Physics

Materials Science, Multidisciplinary ; Physics, Applied ; Physics, Condensed Matter

WOS:000962389700004

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

2-s2.0-85150866534

Scopus

1.State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics,Department of Physics,Tsinghua University,Beijing,100084,China
2.Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences,SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory,Menlo Park,94025,United States
3.Department of Applied Physics,Stanford University,Stanford,94305,United States
4.Department of Physics,City University of Hong Kong,Kowloon,999077,Hong Kong
5.Frontier Science Center for Quantum Information,Beijing,100084,China
6.Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,518055,China

Wang，Rui Feng,Xiong，Yan Ling,Yan，Hang,et al. Observation of Coulomb blockade and Coulomb staircases in superconducting Pr0.8Sr0.2NiO2 films[J]. Physical Review B,2023,107(11).

Wang，Rui Feng.,Xiong，Yan Ling.,Yan，Hang.,Hu，Xiaopeng.,Osada，Motoki.,...&Xue，Qi Kun.(2023).Observation of Coulomb blockade and Coulomb staircases in superconducting Pr0.8Sr0.2NiO2 films.Physical Review B,107(11).

Wang，Rui Feng,et al."Observation of Coulomb blockade and Coulomb staircases in superconducting Pr0.8Sr0.2NiO2 films".Physical Review B 107.11(2023).