The DC Josephson effect is theoretically studied in a planar junction in which a two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) infinite in lateral directions is in contact with two superconducting electrodes placed on top of the 2DEG. An energy gap in the excitation spectrum is created in the 2DEG due to the proximity effect. It is shown that under certain conditions, the region of the 2DEG underneath th...

We present measurements of the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, for arrays of mesoscopic Nb islands patterned on Au films, for large island spacings d. We show that Tc ∼ 1/d(2), and explain this dependence in terms of the quasiclassical prediction that the Thouless energy, rather than the superconducting gap, governs the inter-island coupling at large spacings. We also find that the ...

Scanning tunneling spectroscopy has been used to reveal signatures of a bosonic mode in the local quasiparticle density of states of superconducting FeSe films. The mode appears below Tc as a "dip-hump" feature at energy Ω∼4.7kBTc beyond the superconducting gap Δ. Spectra on strained regions of the FeSe films reveal simultaneous decreases in Δ and Ω. This contrasts with all previous reports on ...

It is shown that the density of states (DOS) proportional to the excitation energy, the so-called polar like DOS, can arise in the odd-parity states with the superconducting gap vanishing at points even if the spin-orbit interaction for Cooper pairing is strong enough. Such gap stuructures are realized in the non-unitary states, F1u(1, i, 0), F1u(1, ε, ε ), and F2u(1, i, 0), classified by Volov...

We report transverse-field and zero-field muon spin rotation and relaxation studies of the superconducting rhenium oxide pyrochlore, Cd2Re2O7. Transverse-field measurements (H=0.007 T) show line broadening below T(c), which is characteristic of a vortex state, demonstrating conclusively the type-II nature of this superconductor. The penetration depth is seen to level off below about 400 mK (T/T...

Scanning tunneling spectroscopic studies of Ba(Fe(1-x)Co(x))(2)As(2) (x=0.06, 0.12) single crystals reveal direct evidence for predominantly two-gap superconductivity. These gaps decrease with increasing temperature and vanish above the superconducting transition T(c). The two-gap nature and the slightly doping- and energy-dependent quasiparticle scattering interferences near the wave vectors (...

The effective action for Goldstone bosons in the color-flavor locking phase of dense QCD is analyzed. Interaction terms and higher derivatives in the effective action appear to be controlled by different scales. At energies of order of the superconducting gap, the derivative expansion breaks down, while interactions still remain suppressed. The effective action valid at energies and momenta com...

The role of symmetry of the inelastic light scattering amplitude, the superconducting energy gap, and the underlying Fermi surface manifold on the Raman spectra of unconventional superconductors is discussed in detail. Particular emphasis is placed on both single and bi-layer superconductors. It is found that the B1g channel may be the most sensitive to doping due to the role of the Van Hove si...

We report on a study of epitaxially grown ultrathin Pb films that are only a few atoms thick and have parallel critical magnetic fields much higher than the expected limit set by the interaction of electron spins with a magnetic field, that is, the Clogston-Chandrasekhar limit. The epitaxial thin films are classified as dirty-limit superconductors because their mean-free paths, which are limite...

A recent experiment [Nadj-Perge et al., Science 346, 602 (2014)] provides evidence for Majorana zero modes in iron (Fe) chains on the superconducting Pb(110) surface. Here, we study this system by scanning tunneling microscopy using superconducting tips. This high-resolution technique resolves a rich subgap structure, including zero-energy excitations in some chains. We compare the symmetry pro...