Spectroscopy of the Superconducting Gap in Individual Nanometer-Scale Aluminum Particles

C. T. Black; D. C. Ralph; M. Tinkham

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.76.688

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Spectroscopy of the Superconducting Gap in Individual Nanometer-Scale Aluminum Particles

C. T. Black, D. C. Ralph, M. Tinkham

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.76.688 · Physical Review Letters

T1

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Abstract

We use electron tunneling to measure electronic energy levels in individual nm-scale Al particles. For sufficiently large particles ( ≳5 nm in radius), the eigenstate energies reveal the existence of a superconducting excitation gap Ω which is driven continuously to zero by an applied magnetic field. The presence of Ω increases the voltage threshold for tunneling in a particle with an even number of electrons in its ground state, but decreases the tunneling threshold for an odd-electron particle. We discuss the roles of spin and orbital pair breaking in the magnetic-field transition.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

Formula	Reported Tc (K)	Pressure (GPa)	Type
Al Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	—	Pressure not reported	unknown