Electron-Phonon Coupling and Dilute Superconductivity in SrTiO<sub>3</sub>

 · Invited

Abstract

The nature of superconductivity in the dilute semiconductor SrTiO3 has remained an open question for over half a century. Thin film heterostructures provide new opportunities to examine SrTiO3 superconductivity using a newly developed method for engineering band alignments at oxide interfaces to access the electronic structure of Nb-doped SrTiO3 using high-resolution tunneling spectroscopy. While we observe strong coupling to the highest-energy longitudinal optic phonon consistent with λ ~ 1, the superconducting gap is found to be in the weak-coupling limit of BCS theory, i.e. λBCS~ 0.1. This discrepancy arises in the context of an unusual anti-adiabatic condition for superconductivity in SrTiO3 (Fermi energy < Debye energy), which we find precisely bounds the superconducting dome.

This work was done in collaboration with Hyeok Yoon, Adrian Swartz, Hisashi Inoue, Yasuyuki Hikita, and Sri Raghu.

*This work was supported by the Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, under contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515; and by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundations Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems Initiative through Grant GBMF4415.

Presenters

  • Harold Hwang

    • Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, Stanford University
    • Stanford University
    • Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University
    • Applied Physics, Stanford University
    • SIMES, SLAC
    • Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
    • SLAC National Accelerator Lab.
    • Physics, Stanford University
    • Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Authors

  • Harold Hwang

    • Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, Stanford University
    • Stanford University
    • Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University
    • Applied Physics, Stanford University
    • SIMES, SLAC
    • Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
    • SLAC National Accelerator Lab.
    • Physics, Stanford University
    • Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory