Magnetic-Related States and Order Parameter Induced in a Conventional Superconductor by Nonmagnetic Chiral Molecules
Abstract
Hybrid ferromagnetic/superconducting systems are well known for hosting intriguing phenomena such as emergent triplet superconductivity at their interfaces and the appearance of in-gap, spin polarized Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) states bound to magnetic impurities on a superconducting surface. In this work we demonstrate that similar phenomena can be induced on a surface of a conventional superconductor by chemisorbing non-magnetic chiral molecules. Conductance spectra measured on NbSe2 flakes over which chiral alpha helix polyalanine molecules were adsorbed, exhibit, in some cases, in-gap states nearly symmetrically positioned around zero bias that shift with magnetic field, akin to YSR states, as corroborated by theoretical simulations. Other samples show evidence for a collective phenomenon of hybridized YSR-like states giving rise to unconventional, possibly triplet superconductivity, manifested in the conductance spectra by the appearance of a zero bias conductance that diminishes, but does not split, with magnetic field. The transition between these two scenarios appears to be governed by the density of adsorbed molecules.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1908.00344,
title = {Magnetic-Related States and Order Parameter Induced in a Conventional Superconductor by Nonmagnetic Chiral Molecules},
author = {Hen Alpern and Konstantin Yavilberg and Tom Dvir and Nir Sukenik and Maya Klang and Shira Yochelis and Hagai Cohen and Eytan Grosfeld and Hadar Steinberg and Yossi Paltiel and Oded Millo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.00344},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
Accepted to Nano Letters. 17 pages and 5 figures. supporting information provided