Published May 1996 | Version v1
Journal article

Study of the proximity effect in Nb/Au, Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+y/Au, and HgBa2CuO4/Ag using a scanning tunneling microscope

  • 1. Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States)

Description

Proximity effect gaps were observed consistently in Nb/Au, Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+y/Au, and HgBa2CuO4/Ag bilayers using a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope. The Nb/Au conductance curves [dI(V)/dV vs V] were fit by the Arnold model, using the accepted energy gap value of Nb, 1.55 meV. The application of gold and silver overlayers allowed vacuum tunneling and topographic images of BSCCO single crystals and the HgBa2CuO4 polycrystalline sample. Cleavage steps of varying sizes (up to 1500 A) in the BSCCO/Au sample were observed, and gaplike features were found on such steps. Consistent, reproducible energy gaps were also found in the Hg-compound sample. copyright 1996 American Institute of Physics

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Journal of Applied Physics
Journal Volume
79
Journal Issue
10
Journal Page Range
p. 7843-7848.
ISSN
0021-8979
CODEN
JAPIAU