Theory of spin inelastic tunneling spectroscopy for superconductor-superconductor and superconductor-metal junctions

Abstract

We address the tunneling conductance and spin inelastic tunneling spectroscopy of localized paramagnetic moments in a superconducting environment, pertaining to recent measurements on Fe-octaethylporphyrin-chloride using superconducting scanning tunneling microscopy. We demonstrate that the Cooper pair correlations in the tip and substrate generate a finite uniaxial anisotropy field acting on the local spin moment, and we argue that this field may be a source for the observed changes in the conductance spectrum for decreasing distance between the scanning tunneling tip and the local magnetic moment. We make a side-by-side comparison between the superconductor-superconductor junction and normal-metal–superconductor junction, and find qualitative agreement between the two setups while quantitative differences become explicit. When simulating the effects of electron pumping, we obtain additional peaks in the conductance spectrum that can be attributed to excitations between higher-energy spin states. The transverse anisotropy field couples basis states of the local spin which opens for transitions between spin states that are otherwise forbidden by conservation of angular momentum. Finally, we explore the influences of temperature, which tend to enable in-gap transitions, and an external magnetic field, which enables deeper studies of the spin excitation spectrum. We especially notice the appearance of a low and high excitation peak on each side of the main coherence peak as an imprint of transitions between the Zeeman split ground states.

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