Observation of surface superconductivity and direct vortex imaging of a Pb thin island with a scanning tunneling microscope

We report on a scanning tunneling spectroscopy study on vortex imaging and surface superconductivity of a thin type-II superconducting Pb island, which is epitaxially grown on Si substrate and 12 atomic monolayers in thickness. The field dependence of vortex lattice evolution reveals the existence o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Europhysics letters 2009-01, Vol.85 (2), p.27004-27004(5)
Main Authors: Ning, Y. X, Song, C. L, Guan, Z. L, Ma, X. C, Chen, Xi, Jia, J. F, Xue, Q. K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
68.37.Ef
74.25.Op
74.25.Qt
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Summary:We report on a scanning tunneling spectroscopy study on vortex imaging and surface superconductivity of a thin type-II superconducting Pb island, which is epitaxially grown on Si substrate and 12 atomic monolayers in thickness. The field dependence of vortex lattice evolution reveals the existence of the surface superconducting layer, which is parallel to the magnetic field in the periphery of the island and disappears above a critical field $H_{{\rm c}3}$ of 3077 G. The $H_{{\rm c}3}/H_{{\rm c}2}$ ratio of 1.57 gives a further support for the surface superconductivity.
ISSN:0295-5075
1286-4854
DOI:10.1209/0295-5075/85/27004