Spatial Instabilities, Homogeneities and Proximity Effects

Book excerpt: We have developed a superconducting scanning tunneling microscope (S-STM) which is a direct and local probe of the pair wave function of superconducting materials via the Josephson effect and quasiparticle spectra via scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS). The novel feature of this device is a superconducting tip (Pb with an Ag capping layer) in close proximity to a superconducting sample to form a superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) tunnel junction. The operation of this S-STM has been verified in the observation of Josephson tunneling between the tip and different sample systems including Pb films and NbSe2. This instrument was employed in the study of High T{sub c} superconductors and spatial inhomogeneities. The major accomplishments in the current grant period are observations of c-axis Josephson tunneling between a conventional superconductor (Pb) and variously doped BSSCO samples. These observations are reported: (1) C-axis Josephson couplings between Pb and both OP and OV-BSCCO. This is surprising if BSCCO is strictly a d-wave superconductor; (2) ICRN of the OP sample seemed to be much smaller than those of OV samples; (3) ICRN inhomogeneity is correlated with the gap inhomogeneity on the length scale of [xi] in the OV samples; (4) Inverse correlation between ICRN and [Delta] in OV samples; (5) Degradations of the superconductivity of BSCCO by high current density.