Transport spectroscopy on trapped superconducting nano-islands of Pb: signature of unconventional pairing.

Elemental bulk lead (Pb) is a conventional type I, spin-singlet (s-wave) superconductor with a critical temperature T c = 7.2 K and a critical magnetic field H c = 800 Oe. However, it is known that at mesoscopic length scales, like in point-contact geometries, Pb shows significantly higher critical field, sometimes up to several Tesla. We have used this property to trap a small superconducting nano-droplet of Pb by forming a metallic point contact on Pb and then applying a magnetic field larger than 800 Oe that drives the bulk of the material non-superconducting. From systematic magnetic field dependent behaviour of the point-contact spectra measured across such a trapped island of Pb we show that the superconducting order parameter of mesoscopic Pb mixes non-trivially with magnetic field possibly due to the emergence of a local spin-triplet component at such length scales. From comparative studies with Nb-based point contacts we surmise that the strong spin-orbit coupling in Pb leads to the emergence of the unconventional component in the order parameter of mesoscopic Pb.

Field induced hysteretic structural phase switching and possible CDW in Re-doped MoTe2.

Novel electronic systems displaying exotic physical properties can be derived from complex topological materials through chemical doping. MoTe2, the candidate type-II Weyl semimetal shows dramatically enhanced superconductivity up to 4.1 K upon Re doping in Mo sites. Based on bulk transport and local scanning tunnelling microscopy here we show that Re doping also leads to the emergence of a possible charge density wave phase in Re0.2Mo0.8Te2. In addition, the tunnellingI-Vcharacteristics display non-linearity and hysteresis which is commensurate with a hysteresis observed in the change in tip-height (z) as a function of applied voltageV. The observations indicate an electric field induced hysteretic switching consistent with piezoelectricity and possible ferroelectricity.

Enhanced, homogeneously type-II superconductivity in Cu-intercalated PdTe2.

Though the superconducting phase of the type-II Dirac semimetal PdTe2 was shown to be conventional in nature, the phase continued to be interesting in terms of its magnetic properties. While certain experiments indicated an unexpected type-I superconducting phase, other experiments revealed formation of vortices under the application of magnetic fields. Recently, scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) experiments revealed the existence of a mixed phase where type-I and type-II behaviours coexist. Here, based on our temperature and magnetic field dependent STS experiments on Cu-intercalated PdTe2, we show that as the critical temperature of the superconducting phase goes up from 1.7 K to 2.4 K on Cu-intercalation, the mixed phase disappears and the system becomes homogeneously type-II. This may be attributed to an averaging effect caused by quasiparticle exchange between type-I and type-II domains mediated by the Cu atoms and to decreased coherence length due to increased disorder.

Mixed type I and type II superconductivity due to intrinsic electronic inhomogeneities in the type II Dirac semimetal PdTe2.

The type II Dirac semimetal PdTe[Formula: see text] is unique in the family of topological parent materials because it displays a superconducting ground state below 1.7 K. Despite wide speculation on the possibility of an unconventional topological superconducting phase, tunneling and heat capacity measurements revealed that the superconducting phase of PdTe[Formula: see text] follows predictions of the microscopic theory of Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer for conventional superconductors. The superconducting phase in PdTe[Formula: see text] is further interesting because it also displays properties that are characteristic of type-I superconductors and are generally unexpected for binary compounds. Here, from scanning tunneling spectroscopic measurements we show that the surface of PdTe[Formula: see text] displays intrinsic electronic inhomogeneities in the normal state which leads to a mixed type I and type II superconducting behaviour along with a spatial distribution of critical fields in the superconducting state. Understanding of the origin of such inhomogeneities may be important for understanding the topological properties of PdTe[Formula: see text] in the normal state.

Suppression of transport spin-polarization of surface states with emergence of ferromagnetism in Mn-doped Bi2Se3.

The surface states of topological insulators (TI) are protected by time reversal symmetry and they display intrinsic spin helicity where the momentum of the charge carriers decides their spin states. As a consequence, a current injected through the surface states becomes spin polarized and this transport spin-polarization leads to a proportionate suppression of Andreev reflection in superconductor/TI junctions. Here we show that upon doping Bi2Se3 with Mn, the transport spin-polarization is seen to be monotonically suppressed. The parent compound Bi2Se3 is found to exhibit a transport spin-polarization of about 63% whereas crystals with 10% Mn doping show transport spin-polarization of about 48%. This suppression is accompanied by an increasing ferromagnetic order of the crystals with Mn doping. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy shows that the topological protection of the surface states reduces due to Mn doping. The net measured transport spin-polarization is due to a competition of this effect with the increased magnetization on Mn doping. The present results provide important insights for the choice of magnetic topological insulators for spintronic applications.