Josephson Scanning Tunneling Microscope
O Naaman, W Teizer, RC Dynes
Review of Scientific Instruments 72 (3), 1688
Superconducting scanning tunneling microscope tips have been fabricated with a high degree of reproducibility. The fabrication process
relies on sequential deposition of superconducting Pb and a proximity-coupled Ag capping layer onto a Pt/Ir tip. The tips were
characterized by tunneling into both normal-metal and superconducting films. The simplicity of the fabrication process, along with
the stability and reproducibility of the tips, clear the way for tunneling studies with a well-characterized, scannable superconducting electrode.
Hikari Kimura, RP Barber, Jr., S Ono, Yoichi Ando, RC Dynes
Physics Review Letters 101 (3), 037002
We have performed both Josephson and quasiparticle tunneling in vacuum tunnel junctions formed between a conventional superconducting
scanning tunneling microscope tip and overdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d single crystals. A Josephson current is observed with a peak
centered at a small finite voltage due to the thermal-fluctuation-dominated superconducting phase dynamics. Josephson
measurements at different surface locations yield local values for the Josephson IcRn product. Corresponding energy gap
measurements were also performed and a surprising inverse correlation was observed between the local IcRn product and the local
energy gap.