Tunneling Probe Research Articles

Bond-Selected Photodissociation of Single Molecules Adsorbed on Metal Surfaces.

We report the photoassisted activation of selected C─H bonds in individual molecules adsorbed on metal surfaces within the junction of a scanning tunneling microscope. Photons can couple to the C─H bond activation of specific hydrocarbons through a resonant photoassisted tunneling process. The molecule to be activated can be selected by positioning the tip with subangstrom resolution. Furthermore, structural tomography of the molecule and its dissociation products are imaged at different heights by the inelastic tunneling probe. The demonstration of single bond dissociation induced by resonant photoassisted tunneling electrons implies the attainment of atomic scale spatial resolution for bond-selected photochemistry.

Quasiparticle gaps in multiprobe Majorana nanowires

We theoretically study a spin-orbit-coupled nanowire proximitized by a superconductor in the presence of an externally applied Zeeman field ("Majorana nanowire") with zero-energy Majorana bound states localized at the two ends of the wire when the Zeeman spin splitting is large enough for the system to enter the topological phase. The specific physics of interest in the current work is the effect of having several tunnel probes attached to the wire along its length. Such tunnel probes should allow, as a matter of principle, one to observe both the predicted bulk superconducting gap closing and opening associated with the topological quantum phase transition as well as the Majorana bound states at the wire ends showing up as zero-bias conductance peaks, depending on which probes are used for the tunneling spectroscopy measurement. Because of the possible invasive nature of the tunnel probes, producing local potential fluctuations in the nanowire, we find the physical situation to be quite complex. In particular, depending on the details of the tunnel barrier operational at the probes, the Majorana nanowire could manifest additional low-energy Andreev bound states which will manifest their own almost-zero-bias peaks, complicating the interpretation of the tunneling data in multiprobe Majorana nanowires. We use two complementary microscopic models to simulate the probes, finding that the tunneling conductance spectrum depends rather sensitively on the details of the tunnel barriers at the probes. We apply our general analysis to simulate a recent multiprobe nanowire experiment commenting on the nature of the quasiparticle gaps likely controlling the experimental observations.

Anomalous electronic heat capacity of copper nanowires at sub-Kelvin temperatures

We have measured the electronic heat capacity of thin film nanowires of copper and silver at temperatures 0.1--0.3 K; the films were deposited by standard electron-beam evaporation. The specific heat of the Ag films of sub-100-nm thickness agrees with the bulk value and the free-electron estimate, whereas that of similar Cu films exceeds the corresponding reference values by one order of magnitude. The origin of the anomalously high heat capacity of copper films remains unknown for the moment. Based on the small heat capacity at low temperatures and the possibility to devise a tunnel probe thermometer on it, metal films form a promising absorber material, e.g., for microwave photon calorimetry.

Magnetometry with Low-Resistance Proximity Josephson Junction

We characterize a niobium-based superconducting quantum interference proximity transistor (Nb-SQUIPT) built upon a Nb-Cu-Nb SNS weak link. The Nb-SQUIPT and SNS devices are fabricated simultaneously in two separate lithography and deposition steps, relying on Ar ion cleaning of the Nb contact surfaces. The quality of the Nb-Cu interface is characterized by measuring the temperature-dependent equilibrium critical supercurrent of the SNS junction. In the Nb-SQUIPT device, we observe a maximum flux-to-current transfer function value of about 55 nA/\Phi_0 in the sub-gap regime of bias voltages. This results in suppression of power dissipation down to a few fW. The device can implement a low-dissipation SQUIPT, improving by up to two orders of magnitude compared to a conventional device based on an Al-Cu-Al SNS junction and an Al tunnel probe (Al-SQUIPT).

Some experiments with the tunnel probe in a low temperature magnetized plasma

Experiments were performed using a Tunnel Probe (TP) inside the weakly-ionised plasma of the Linear Magnetized Plasma Device (LMPD). The TP is designed as a concave probe, which should annihilate the problem of sheath expansion in the ion branch of the I-V characteristic. As the ion saturation current is consequently well defined, the ion parallel current and plasma density can be more accurately calculated. Furthermore the ratio between the ion saturation currents on the two collectors (tunnel ring and the back-plate) can be used to derive the electron temperature. The TP has been repeatedly used with success on the former Castor and Tore-Supra tokamaks and will be used on the upgraded version of Tore-supra, namely the WEST tokamak, as well [1, 2]. It was however never used successfully in a low-temperature plasma.We studied the feasibility of the TP use in a low-temperature plasma for direct measurements of plasma temperature and density. The various probe characteristic dimensions, such as the distance between the two collectors, the aperture size and the probe radius were varied to see influence of the individual probe feature. We also varied the level of magnetization of the charged particle species, the background gas pressure (which influences the electron energy distribution function), the plasma density (important for the ratio between the λD and the ion Larmor radius). The sensitivity of the probe alignment to the magnetic field lines was also studied. We found, that the ion saturation current does not necessarily saturate and that the probe works according to expectations only in a limited amount of regimes.

Scaling of subgap excitations in a superconductor-semiconductor nanowire quantum dot

A quantum dot coupled to a superconducting contact provides a tunable artificial analogue of a magnetic atom in a superconductor, a paradigmatic quantum impurity problem. We realize such a system with an InAs semiconductor nanowire contacted by an Al-based superconducting electrode. We use an additional normal-type contact as weakly coupled tunnel probe to perform tunneling spectroscopy measurements of the elementary sub-gap excitations, known as Andreev bound states or Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states. We demonstrate that the energy of these states, $\zeta$, scales with the ratio between the Kondo temperature, $T_K$, and the superconducting gap, $\Delta$. $\zeta$ vanishes for $T_K/\Delta \approx 0.6$, denoting a quantum phase transition between spin singlet and doublet ground states. By further leveraging the gate control over the quantum dot parameters, we determine the singlet-doublet phase boundary in the stability diagram of the system. Our experimental results show remarkable quantitative agreement with numerical renormalization group calculations.

Imaging van der Waals Interactions.

The van der Waals interactions are responsible for a large diversity of structures and functions in chemistry, biology, and materials. Discussion of van der Waals interactions has focused on the attractive potential energy that varies as the inverse power of the distance between the two interacting partners. The origin of the attractive force is widely discussed as being due to the correlated fluctuations of electron charges that lead to instantaneous dipole-induced dipole attractions. Here, we use the inelastic tunneling probe to image the potential energy surface associated with the van der Waals interactions of xenon atoms.

Probing Fractional Josephson Junction with a Quantum Dot

We consider theoretically a junction between two topological superconducting wires, mediated by a quantum dot. The wires are modelled by the Kitaev chains tuned into topological phase, which possess unpaired Majorana states at their ends. We derive the low energy Hamiltonian of the model. The Majorana states closer to the dot convert into the Dirac fermion inside the dot, forming fractional Josephson junction. The dot is additionally weakly coupled to the normal tunneling probe allowing transport measurement through the dot. When the topological wires are short, the unpaired Majorana end-states can hybridize inside the wire forming an extended Dirac fermionic state. It yields the destruction of the extended state in the dot. We discuss the dependence of the spectral density of the dot and its conductance on superconducting phase. We show that the conservation of parity of the junction, crucial for successful measurement of the fractional effect, can be assured by the gate voltage manipulation of the dot level position and that in case of an unpaired Majorana state in the junction a half conductance quantum can be observed.

Simultaneous DC measurements of ion current density and electron temperature using a tunnel probe

The tunnel probe is a concave Langmuir probe designed to operate in strongly magnetized plasma. Due to its shape, the tunnel probe is immune to sheath expansion effects and thus provides absolutely calibrated measurements of the parallel ion current density. A two-dimensional, self-consistent kinetic model is employed to model the flow of charges within the cavity of the tunnel probe. The calculation predicts that the distribution of the ion flux onto the inner conductors depends on the electric field inside the tunnel, which in turn depends on the electron temperature. Therefore, if the tunnel is divided into two negatively biased collectors, it is possible to use the simulation results to determine the electron temperature from the measured ion current ratio. This means that a DC-biased tunnel probe can be used to provide fast, simultaneous measurements of the parallel ion current density and the electron temperature without collecting a single electron. Measurements in the CASTOR and Tore Supra tokamaks agree well with the numerical simulations.

Simultaneous poloidal measurements using new magnetically driven reciprocating probes in COMPASS

Particles and heat transport in the scrape-off layer (SOL) of tokamaks is not yet fully understood. COMPASS is a small-size tokamakp where the edge plasma is well diagnosed in view of studying the competition between the parallel and the cross-field transport in the SOL. In order to better characterize SOL dynamics, in particular the poloidal asymmetry of the main parameters' radial profiles, two new in-situ magnetically driven reciprocating manipulators have been recently installed in COMPASS. These manipulators, the so-called pecker probes, are two additional poloidal measurement points to the existing two (vertical and horizontal) reciprocating manipulators. The pecker probes are located at the low field side of COMPASS at ±47.5o with respect to the outer mid-plane and are equipped with identical tunnel probe heads, providing simultaneous measurements of the ion saturation current density Jsat, the electron temperature Te and the parallel Mach number M// with high temporal resolution. In this paper, a detailed description of the pecker probe system in COMPASS is described and first measurements are presented.

Effect of Drilling Speed of Probe Drilling Data on the Clustering of Rock Strength at NATM-4, Hulu Langat, Selangor

Prediction of ground condition ahead of tunnel face is the most important practice during the construction of tunnel. Prior to excavation, geological condition are studied in order to avoid any potential excessive water ingress or tunnel collapse that may cause fatality. In addition, the prediction aids to upsurge the production and safety of the construction. Techniques on the prediction of ground condition ahead of tunnel face have significantly advanced over the years, there; Tunnel Seismic Prediction (TSP) and probe drilling method. In this study, probe drilling method data is chosen to study the ground condition and rock strength. This paper aims to predict the strength of rock based on the probe drilling record by using statistical method. Parameter studied taken from this probe drilling data is drilling speed. Based on this parameter, k-means clustering is used to cluster the drilling speeds that are possible to occur in relation to the ground condition. The changes of drilling properties observed during the probe drilling provide some indication on the strength of the ground, the presence large of cavities, type of rock and the presence of groundwater. The information records will be interpreted in order to forecast the anticipated ground condition. This paper provides a brief overview of the rock strength cluster encountered along the NATM-4 tunnel at Hulu Langat, Selangor.

Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states in phase-biased superconductor–quantum dot–superconductor junctions

We study the effects of a phase difference on Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) states in a spinful Coulomb-blockaded quantum dot contacted by a superconducting loop. In the limit where charging energy is larger than the superconducting gap, we determine the subgap excitation spectrum, the corresponding supercurrent, and the differential conductance as measured by a normal-metal tunnel probe. In absence of a phase difference only one linear combination of the superconductor lead electrons couples to the spin, which gives a single YSR state. With finite phase difference, however, it is effectively a two-channel scattering problem and therefore an additional state emerges from the gap edge. The energy of the phase-dependent YSR states depend on the gate voltage and one state can cross zero energy twice inside the valley with odd occupancy. These crossings are shifted by the phase difference towards the charge degeneracy points, corresponding to larger exchange couplings. Moreover, the zero-energy crossings give rise to resonant peaks in the differential conductance with magnitude $4e^2/h$. Finally, we demonstrate that the quantum fluctuations of the dot spin do not alter qualitatively any of the results.

Interaction-enabled topological phases in topological insulator–superconductor heterostructures

Topological phases of matter that depend for their existence on interactions are fundamentally interesting and potentially useful as platforms for future quantum computers. Despite the multitude of theoretical proposals the only interaction-enabled topological phase experimentally observed is the fractional quantum Hall liquid. To help identify other systems that can give rise to such phases we present in this work a detailed study of the effect of interactions on Majorana zero modes bound to vortices in a superconducting surface of a 3D topological insulator. This system is of interest because, as was recently pointed out, it can be tuned into the regime of strong interactions. We start with a 0D system suggesting an experimental realization of the interaction-induced $\mathbb{Z}_8$ ground state periodicity previously discussed by Fidkowski and Kitaev. We argue that the periodicity is experimentally observable using a tunnel probe. We then focus on interaction-enabled crystalline topological phases that can be built with the Majoranas in a vortex lattice in higher dimensions. In 1D we identify an interesting exactly solvable model which is related to a previously discussed one that exhibits an interaction-enabled topological phase. We study these models using analytical techniques, exact numerical diagonalization (ED) and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG). Our results confirm the existence of the interaction-enabled topological phase and clarify the nature of the quantum phase transition that leads to it. We finish with a discussion of models in dimensions 2 and 3 that produce similar interaction-enabled topological phases.

Probing many-body quantum states in single InAs quantum dots: Terahertz and tunneling spectroscopy

We have investigated the many-body quantum states in single InAs quantum dots (QDs) by simultaneously obtaining the terahertz (THz) intersublevel transition and single electron tunneling spectra. It is found that the intersublevel transition energies measured in the few-electron region are systematically larger than the excited state (ES) energies determined from the transport measurements. We show that tunneling and THz spectroscopy probe the same many-body excited states in the QDs, but their sensitivities depend on their selection rules. In the many-electron region, we observe THz peaks whose energies coincide with the tunneling ESs.

Shiba states and zero-bias anomalies in the hybrid normal-superconductor Anderson model

We determine the phase diagram of an Anderson impurity in contact with superconducting and normal-state leads for arbitrary ratio of the gap $\Delta$ to the Kondo temperature $T_K$. We observe a considerable effect of even very weak coupling to the normal lead that is usually considered as a non-perturbing tunneling probe. The numerical renormalization group results are analyzed in the context of relevant experimental scenarios such as parity crossing (doublet-singlet) quantum phase transitions induced by a gap reduction as well as novel Kondo features induced by the normal lead. We point out the important role of finite temperatures and magnetic fields. Overall, we find a very rich behavior of spectral functions with zero-bias anomalies which can emerge irrespective of whether the ground state is a doublet or a singlet. Our findings are pertinent to the tunnelling-spectroscopy experiments aiming at detecting Majorana modes in nanowires.

A Microstrip Probe Based on Electromagnetic Energy Tunneling for Extremely Small and Arbitrarily Shaped Dielectric Samples

An energy-tunneling sensor is fabricated by joining two air-suspended short-circuited microstrip cavities with a common ground interconnected by a half-wavelength wire. Due to tunneling, highly concentrated fields are created at the tip of the wire. In this letter, we propose to exploit these concentrated fields to detect the presence of extremely small and arbitrary shaped samples and their dielectric properties. The simulation and measurement results show respective frequency shifts of 60 and 80 MHz in the tunneling frequency when 2 ×2 ×1.6 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> samples of FR4 and Rogers 6006 materials are placed on the wire tip. This kind of energy tunneling probe can bring a special advantage in the area of biomedical and forensic analysis where, usually the samples are small in size with no defined shape.

Theory of vibrationally assisted tunneling for hydroxyl monomer flipping on Cu(110)

To describe vibrationally mediated configuration changes of adsorbates on surfaces we have developed a new theory to calculate both reaction rates and pathways. The method uses the T-matrix to describe excitations of vibrational states by the electrons of the substrate, adsorbate and tunneling electrons from a scanning tunneling probe. In addition to reaction rates, the theory also provides the reaction pathways by going beyond the harmonic approximation and using the full potential energy surface of the adsorbate which contains local minima corresponding to the adsorbates different configurations. To describe the theory, we reproduce the experimental results in [T. Kumagai \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. B \textbf{79}, 035423 (2009)], where the hydrogen/deuterium atom of an adsorbed hydroxyl (OH/OD) exhibits back and forth flipping between two equivalent configurations on a Cu(110) surface at $T = 6$ K. We estimate the potential energy surface and the reaction barrier, $\sim$160 meV, from DFT calculations. The calculated flipping processes arise from i) at low bias, tunneling of the hydrogen through the barrier, ii) intermediate bias, tunneling electrons excite the vibrations increasing the reaction rate although over the barrier processes are rare, and iii) higher bias, overtone excitations increase the reaction rate further.

Visualization of electron orbitals in scanning tunneling microscopy

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is one of the main techniques for direct visualization of the surface electronic structure and chemical analysis of multi-component surfaces at the atomic scale. This review is focused on the role of the tip orbital structure and tip-surface interaction in STM imaging with picometer spatial resolution. Fabrication of STM probes with well-defined structure and selective visualization of individual electron orbitals in the STM experiments with controlled tunneling gap and probe structure are demonstrated.

Real-space imaging of molecular structure and chemical bonding by single-molecule inelastic tunneling probe.

The arrangement of atoms and bonds in a molecule influences its physical and chemical properties. The scanning tunneling microscope can provide electronic and vibrational signatures of single molecules. However, these signatures do not relate simply to the molecular structure and bonding. We constructed an inelastic tunneling probe based on the scanning tunneling microscope to sense the local potential energy landscape of an adsorbed molecule with a carbon monoxide (CO)-terminated tip. The skeletal structure and bonding of the molecule are revealed from imaging the spatial variations of a CO vibration as the CO-terminated tip probes the core of the interactions between adjacent atoms. An application of the inelastic tunneling probe reveals the sharing of hydrogen atoms among multiple centers in intramolecular and extramolecular bonding.

Temperature dependence of Andreev spectra in a superconducting carbon nanotube quantum dot

Tunneling spectroscopy of a Nb coupled carbon nanotube quantum dot reveals the formation of pairs of Andreev bound states (ABS) within the superconducting gap. A weak replica of the lower ABS is found, which is generated by quasi-particle tunnelling from the ABS to the Al tunnel probe. An inversion of the ABS-dispersion is observed at elevated temperatures, which signals the thermal occupation of the upper ABS. Our experimental findings are well supported by model calculations based on the superconducting Anderson model.