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)