TY - JOUR
T1 - Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy studies of superconducting boron-doped diamond films
AU - Nishizaki, Terukazu
AU - Takano, Yoshihiko
AU - Nagao, Masanori
AU - Takenouchi, Tomohiro
AU - Kawarada, Hiroshi
AU - Kobayashi, Norio
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge fruitful discussions with A. Troyanovskiy, T. Sasaki and H. Fukuyama. This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - We report on scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) experiments on (1 1 1)-oriented epitaxial films of heavily boron-doped diamond grown by using the microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition method. STM/STS measurements were performed by 3He-refrigerator based STM under ultra-high vacuum. The STM topography on the film surface shows a corrugation (with a typical size of ∼1 μm) and grain-like microstructures (∼5-20 nm). The tunneling conductance spectra do not show large spatial dependence and superconductivity is observed independent of the surface structures. The tunneling spectra are analyzed by the Dynes function and the superconducting energy gap is estimated to be Δ = 0.87 meV at T=0.47 K, corresponding to 2 Δ / kB Tc = 3.7. The relatively large value of the broadening parameter Γ = 0.38 meV is discussed in terms of the inelastic electron scattering processes.
AB - We report on scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) experiments on (1 1 1)-oriented epitaxial films of heavily boron-doped diamond grown by using the microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition method. STM/STS measurements were performed by 3He-refrigerator based STM under ultra-high vacuum. The STM topography on the film surface shows a corrugation (with a typical size of ∼1 μm) and grain-like microstructures (∼5-20 nm). The tunneling conductance spectra do not show large spatial dependence and superconductivity is observed independent of the surface structures. The tunneling spectra are analyzed by the Dynes function and the superconducting energy gap is estimated to be Δ = 0.87 meV at T=0.47 K, corresponding to 2 Δ / kB Tc = 3.7. The relatively large value of the broadening parameter Γ = 0.38 meV is discussed in terms of the inelastic electron scattering processes.
KW - Boron-doped diamond films
KW - Energy gap
KW - Scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy
KW - Superconductivity
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U2 - 10.1016/j.stam.2005.11.015
DO - 10.1016/j.stam.2005.11.015
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33751249600
SN - 1468-6996
VL - 7
SP - 22
EP - 26
JO - Science and Technology of Advanced Materials
JF - Science and Technology of Advanced Materials
IS - SUPPL. 1
ER -