Visualization of defect-induced interband proximity effect at the nanoscale

TL;DR

This paper visualizes how defects in a multiband superconductor locally alter interband coupling and the superconducting gaps, providing experimental insights into multiband superconductivity physics.

Contribution

It demonstrates local tuning of interband coupling and superconducting gaps at defects in a clean-limit superconductor, testing multiband superconductor theories.

Findings

Defects can modify superconducting gaps from two separate to merged.

Weak interband coupling allows for distinct condensates in Pb.

Experimental visualization supports multiband superconductor models.

Abstract

The vast majority of superconductors have more than one Fermi surface, on which the electrons pair below the critical temperature $T_C$, yet their superconducting behavior can be well described by a single-band Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory. This is mostly due to interband scattering, especially in superconductors in the dirty limit, rigidly linking the pairing amplitude of the different bands. This effect has severely limited experimental studies of the complex physics of multiband superconductivity. In this study, we utilize the fact that elementary Pb - as a clean limit system - has two Fermi surfaces that are only weakly coupled by interband scattering, allowing the formation of two separate condensates. By studying crystallographic defects in the form of stacking fault tetrahedra with our millikelvin scanning tunneling microscope, we show how to locally tune interband coupling ranging from weak to strong coupling and modify the superconducting order parameters from two well separated gaps to one merged gap around defects. The experiments critically test the theory of multiband superconductors and give a route to access a wide range of predicted quantum effects in these systems.