Evidence from tunneling spectroscopy for a quasi-one-dimensional origin of superconductivity in Sr2RuO4

Abstract

To establish the mechanism of unconventional superconductivity in Sr2RuO4, a prerequisite is direct information concerning the momentum-space structure of the energy gaps Δi(k), and in particular whether the pairing strength is stronger (“dominant”) on the quasi-one-dimensional (α and β) or on the quasi-two-dimensional (γ) Fermi surfaces. We present scanning tunneling microscopy measurements of the density of states spectra in the superconducting state of Sr2RuO4 for 0.1Tc < T < Tc and analyze them along with published thermodynamic data using a simple phenomenological model. We show that our observation of a single superconducting gap scale with maximum value 2Δ≈5Tc along with a spectral shape indicative of line nodes is consistent, within a weak-coupling model, with magnetically mediated odd-parity superconductivity generated by dominant, near-nodal, Cooper pairing on the α and β bands.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

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