Superconducting properties of Pb nanoislands on Pb/Ag/Si(111) studied by a ³He-cooled scanning tunnelling microscope in magnetic fields at variable temperatures

A ³He-cooled scanning tunneling microscope was used to investigate the superconducting properties of Pb single layers on Si(111) and Ag/Si(111) and Pb islands on Pb/Ag/Si(111) at temperatures between 0.38 K and 6 K and in magnetic fields of up to 3 T. The spectroscopy measurements show that in contrast with Pb/Si(111), a single Pb layer on Ag/Si(111) is non-superconducting. The superconductivity of Pb islands on Pb/Ag/Si(111) was characterized as a function of temperature and magnetic field. A non-uniform critical magnetic field for suppression of superconductivity on islands of uniform thickness but sitting of regions of different height is reported. The proximity induced superconductivity on the wetting layer surrounding a Pb island on Pb/Ag/Si(111) was studied. Spatially resolved, magnetic field dependent spectroscopy uncovers a non-trivial reduction of the extension of the induced superconductivity with increasing field. A breakdown of the proximity effect for fields larger than 0.5 T is found. Tunneling spectroscopy reveals a strong decrease of the proximity length with increasing temperature. This is ascribed to the thermally induced broadening of the electronic density of states in the tip used in the STM experiment.