Magnetic Atoms on Superconductors Studied by Scanning Tunneling Microscope – STM

Magnetic Stoms on Superconductors Studied by Scanning Tunneling Microscope - STM

Title: Magnetic Atoms on Superconductors Studied by Scanning Tunneling Microscope – STM.
When: Friday, May 18, (2018), 12:00.
Place: Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Faculty of Sciences, Module 3, Seminar Room (5th Floor).
Speaker: Choi Deung-Jang, Donostia International Physics Center, DIPC, Centro de Fisica de Materiales, CFM/MPC, CSIC-UPV/EHU and CIC nanoGUNE, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain.

Recently, the introduction of new impurity states in the superconducting gap has received a lot of attention. Indeed, the search of a new superconducting state dubbed topological superconductivity is strongly based in the combination of doping classical (s-wave) superconductors with magnetic impurities that arrange in a chiral fashion. Depending on the nature of the atomic species added to a superconductor, different effects can be achieved. Magnetic adatoms can be considered as impurities that weaken the binding of superconducting pairs leading to dirty superconductivity and to impurity levels in the: so-called Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) states. These YRS states are the results of weakening Cooper pairs by the localized magnetic moment of the impurity. By using scanning tunneling spectroscopy, resolving their origin and exploring basic properties of BCS superconductors, we found that the shape of YSR states reflects the shape of d atomic orbitals [1]. And aslo in this work, we present the first results of controlled single-atom manipulation to assemble a chain of Cr atoms on a Bi2Pd superconductor. The influence of the atoms on the superconducting electronic structure is revealed as well as the interactions at work. The interatomic distance between two Cr atoms is thoroughly explored revealing Cr-Cr interactions mediated by the superconductor [2]. Furthermore, we have extended our studies to spin chains of Cr on Bi2Pd, finding interesting solutions of YSR extended states, precursors of YSR bands.

References

  1. Choi, D.-J. et al. Mapping the orbital structure of impurity bound states in a superconductor. Nat. Commun. 8, 15175 (2017).
  2. Choi, D.-J. et al. PRL accepted, arXiv:1709.09224.