Direct observation of the scaling relation between density of states and pairing gap in a dirty superconductor

Theories and experiments on dirty superconductors are complex but important in terms of both theoretical fundamentals and practical applications.These activities are even more challenging when magnetic fields are present because the field distribution,electron density of states,and superconducting pairing potentials become nonuniform.Here,we present tunneling microspectroscopic experiments on NbC single crystals and demonstrate that NbC is a homogeneous dirty superconductor.When applying magnetic fields to the samples,we found that the zero-energy local density of states and the pairing energy gap followed the explicit scaling relation proposed by de Gennes for homogeneous dirty superconductors in high magnetic fields.More significantly,our experimental findings indicate that the validity of the scaling relation extends to magnetic field strengths far below the upper critical field,calling for a new nonperturbative understanding of this fundamental property in dirty superconductors.On the practical side,we used the observed scaling relation to derive a simple and straightforward experimental scheme for estimating the superconducting coherence length of a dirty superconductor in magnetic fields.

Tip-Pressure-Induced Incoherent Energy Gap in CaFe_2As_2

In CaFe2 As2, superconductivity can be achieved by applying a modest c-axis pressure of several kbar. Here we use scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy （STM/S） to explore the STM tip pressure effect on single crystals of CaFe2 As2. When performing STM/S measurements, the tip-sample interaction can be controlled to act repulsive with reduction of the junction resistance, thus to apply a tip pressure on the sample. We find that an incoherent energy gap emerges at the Fermi level in the differential conductance spectrum when the tip pressure is increased. This energy gap is of the similar order of magnitude as the superconducting gap in the chemical doped compound Cao.4Nao.6Fe2As2 and disappears at the temperature well below that of the bulk magnetic ordering. Moreover, we also observe the rhombic distortion of the As lattice, which agrees with the orthorhombic distortion of the underlying Fe lattice. These findings suggest that the STM tip pressure can induce the local Cooper pairing in the orthorhombic phase of CaFe2As2.

Experimental Observations Indicating the Topological Nature of the Edge States on HfTe5

The topological edge states of two-dimensional topological insulators with large energy gaps furnish ideal conduction channels for dissipationless current transport. Transition metal tellurides XTe5X=Zr, Hf) are theoretically predicted to be large-gap two-dimensional topological insulators, and the experimental observations of their bulk insulating gap and in-gap edge states have been reported, but the topological nature of these edge states still remains to be further elucidated. Here, we report our low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy study on single crystals of HfTe5. We demonstrate a full energy gap of ~80 meV near the Fermi level on the surface monolayer of HfTe5 and that such an insulating energy gap gets filled with finite energy states when measured at the monolayer step edges. Remarkably, such states are absent at the edges of a narrow monolayer strip of one-unit-cell in width but persist at both step edges of a unit-cell wide monolayer groove. These experimental observations strongly indicate that the edge states of HfTe5 monolayers are not trivially caused by translational symmetry breaking, instead they are topological in nature protected by the 2 D nontrivial bulk properties.

Experimental Investigation of the Electronic Structure of Ca_(0.83)La_(0.17)Fe_(2)As_(2)

We performed a combined angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy study of the electronic structure of electron-doped Ca_(0.83)La_(0.17)Fe_(2)As_(2).A surface reconstruction associated with the dimerization of As atoms is observed directly in the real space,as well as the consequent band folding in the momentum space.Besides this band folding effect,the Fermi surface topology of this material is similar to that reported previously for BaFe_(1.85)Co_(0.15)As_(2),with Γ-centered hole pockets quasi-nested to M-centered electron pockets by the antiferromagnetic wave vector.Although no superconducting gap is observed by ARPES possibly due to low superconducting volume fraction,a gap-like density of states depression of 7.7±2.9 meV is determined by scanning tunneling microscopy.