Tunneling Conductance in Normal-Insulator-Superconductor junctions of Silicene

TL;DR

This paper studies how tunneling conductance in silicene NIS junctions varies with barrier strength, electric field, and doping, revealing controllable oscillatory behavior and phase shifts in conductance patterns.

Contribution

It introduces the theoretical analysis of tunneling conductance in silicene NIS junctions, highlighting electric field control and doping effects on conductance oscillations.

Findings

Conductance oscillates with barrier strength, similar to graphene.

External electric field enables control over conductance in silicene.

Oscillation period shifts from π/2 to π with doping changes.

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the transport properties of a normal-insulator-superconductor (NIS) junction of silicene in the thin barrier limit. Similar to graphene the tunneling conductance in such NIS structure exhibits an oscillatory behavior as a function of the strength of the barrier in the insulating region. However, unlike in graphene, the tunneling conductance in silicene can be controlled by an external electric field owing to its buckled structure. We also demonstrate the change in behavior of the tunneling conductance across the NIS junction as we change the chemical potential in the normal silicene region. In addition, at high doping levels in the normal region, the period of oscillation of the tunneling conductance as a function of the barrier strength changes from $\pi/2$ to $\pi$ with the variation of doping in the superconducting region of silicene.