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Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize: Scanned Josephson and Andreev Tunneling Microscopy: Visualizing Electron-Pair Fluids and Density Waves

ORAL · Invited

Abstract

Superconductors are quantum fluids and pair density waves (PDW) are quantum crystals. Both are macroscopic quantum states of coherently condensed electron pairs. To visualize and explore these states directly at atomic scale, scanned Josephson tunneling microscopes1-5 (SJTM) are now used. Such instruments can image both the single-electron quasiparticles and, in a different mode, the quantum condensate of electron-pairs. Moreover, these instruments can, in the Andreev quasiparticle retroreflection regime, be operated as scanned Andreev tunneling microscopes (SATM). Emerging research areas include: visualization of PDW states in conventional spin-singlet superconductors1; in cuprate d-wave high-temperature superconductors using d-wave scan tips2,3,4; and in putative spin-triplet topological superconductors5. PDW studies using SJTM and SATM thus open a rich new vein of macroscopic quantum physics, with great potential for discovery.



References

[1] Science 372, 1447 (2021)

[2] Nature 532, 343 (2016)

[3] Science 364, 976 (2019)

[4] Nature 580, 6570 (2020)

[5] Nature (2023) arXiv:2209.10859

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Presenters

  • Seamus S Davis

    University of Oxford, University College Cork, Cornell University, Grad. Centre for Quantum Materials at Max Planck Institute, University of Oxford, University College Cork, University of Oxford, University College Cork

Authors

  • Seamus S Davis

    University of Oxford, University College Cork, Cornell University, Grad. Centre for Quantum Materials at Max Planck Institute, University of Oxford, University College Cork, University of Oxford, University College Cork