0000000000658406
AUTHOR
F. Giubileo
Generalization of Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk theory to particle-hole mixing boundary conditions: \pi-shift and conductance dips
We generalize the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk theory considering non-diagonal boundary conditions in the Bogoliubov-de Gennes scattering problem, to describe anomalous conductance features often reported for normal-metal/superconductor contacts. We calculate the differential conductance spectra showing that conductance dips, not expected in the standard formulation, are explained in terms of phase \pi-shift, between the bulk and the interface order parameter, possibly induced by a localized magnetic moment. A discretized model is used to give quantitative evaluation of the physical conditions, namely the polarization and transparency of the interface, needed to realize the phase gradient.
Local tunneling study of three-dimensional order parameter in the pi band of Al-doped MgB2 single crystals
We have performed local tunneling spectroscopy on high quality Mg$_{1-x}$Al$_x$B$_2$ single crystals by means of Variable Temperature Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy (STS) in magnetic field up to 3 Tesla. Single gap conductance spectra due to c-axis tunneling were extensively measured, probing different amplitudes of the three-dimensional $\Delta_\pi$ as a function of Al content. Temperature and magnetic field dependences of the conductance spectra were studied in S-I-N configuration: the effect of the doping resulted in a monotonous reduction of the locally measured $T_C$ down to 24K for x=0.2. On the other hand, we have found that the gap amplitude shows a maximum value $\Delta_\pi= 2.3$ …