Extracting transport channel transmissions in scanning tunneling microscopy using superconducting excess current

authored by: Jacob Senkpiel, Robert Drost, Jan C. Klöckner, Markus Etzkorn, Joachim Ankerhold, Juan Carlos Cuevas, Fabian Pauly, Klaus Kern, Christian R. Ast
Abstract: Transport through quantum coherent conductors, such as atomic junctions, is described by conduction channels. Information about the number of channels and their transmissions can be extracted from various sources, such as multiple Andreev reflections, dynamical Coulomb blockade, or shot noise. We complement this set of methods by introducing the superconducting excess current as a new tool to continuously extract the transport channel transmissions of an atomic scale junction in a scanning tunneling microscope. In conjunction with ab initio simulations, we employ this technique in atomic aluminum junctions to determine the influence of the structure adjacent to the contact atoms on the transport properties.
External Organisation(s): Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (MPI-FKF)
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST)
University of Konstanz
Technische Universität Braunschweig
Ulm University
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
University of Augsburg
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Type: Article
Journal: Physical Review B
Volume: 105
ISSN: 2469-9950
Publication date: 01.04.2022
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Condensed Matter Physics
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.105.165401 (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@article{6b9d689f9b8745fab1313c28cae7be37,
title = "Extracting transport channel transmissions in scanning tunneling microscopy using superconducting excess current",
abstract = "Transport through quantum coherent conductors, such as atomic junctions, is described by conduction channels. Information about the number of channels and their transmissions can be extracted from various sources, such as multiple Andreev reflections, dynamical Coulomb blockade, or shot noise. We complement this set of methods by introducing the superconducting excess current as a new tool to continuously extract the transport channel transmissions of an atomic scale junction in a scanning tunneling microscope. In conjunction with ab initio simulations, we employ this technique in atomic aluminum junctions to determine the influence of the structure adjacent to the contact atoms on the transport properties.",
author = "Jacob Senkpiel and Robert Drost and Kl{\"o}ckner, {Jan C.} and Markus Etzkorn and Joachim Ankerhold and Cuevas, {Juan Carlos} and Fabian Pauly and Klaus Kern and Ast, {Christian R.}",
note = "Funding information: This work was funded, in part, by the ERC Consolidator Grant AbsoluteSpin (Grant No. 681164). J.C.K. and F.P. thank the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 767 of the German Research Foundation (DFG) as well as the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University for financial support. Part of the numerical modeling was performed using the computational resources of the bwhpc program, namely, the bwUniCluster and the JUSTUS HPC facility. J.C.C. acknowledges funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Grant No. PID2020-114880GB-I00). J.A. acknowledges funding from the Center for Integrated Quantum Science & Technology () and the DFG through AN336/13-1.",
year = "2022",
month = apr,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1103/PhysRevB.105.165401",
language = "English",
volume = "105",
journal = "Physical Review B",
issn = "2469-9950",
publisher = "American Institute of Physics",
number = "16",
}