English

Superconducting energy gap distribution in c-axis oriented MgB$_2$ thin film from point contact study

Superconductivity 2009-11-07 v2

Abstract

We have analyzed about 100 voltage-dependent differential resistance dV/dI(V) curves of metallic point contacts between c-axis oriented MgB2_2 thin film and Ag, which exhibit clear Andreev reflection features connected with the superconducting gap. About one half of the curves show the presence of a second larger gap. The histogram of the double-gap distribution reveals distinct maxima at 2.4 and 7 meV, while curves with a single-gap features result in more broad maximum at 3.5 meV. The double-gap distribution is in qualitative agreement with the distribution of gap values over the Fermi surface calculated by H. J. Choi et al. (cond-mat/0111183). The data unequivocally show the presence of two gaps ΔS=2.45±0.15\Delta_{S}=2.45\pm 0.15 meV and ΔL=7.0±0.45\Delta_{L}=7.0\pm 0.45 meV in MgB2_2 with gap ratio 2.85±0.152.85\pm 0.15. Our observations prove further a widely discussed multi-gap scenario for MgB2_2, where two distinct gaps are seen in the clean limit, while a single averaged gap is present in the dirty one.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0112452,
  title  = {Superconducting energy gap distribution in c-axis oriented MgB$_2$ thin film from point contact study},
  author = {Yu. G. Naidyuk and I. K. Yanson and L. V. Tyutrina and N. L. Bobrov and P. N. Chubov and W. N. Kang and Hyeong-Jin Kim and Eun-Mi Choi and Sung-Ik Lee},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0112452},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

V1:4 pages incl. 4 figures, RevTex4. V2: version for JETP Letters, 4 pages incl 3 Figs., jetpl.cls