Surface structure and multigap superconductivity of V3Si (111) revealed by scanning tunneling microscopy

Abstract

AbstractV3Si, a classical silicide superconductor with relatively high $T_{\mathrm{C}}$ T C (∼16 K), is promising for constructing silicon-based superconducting devices and hetero-structures. However, real space characterization on its surfaces and superconducting properties are still limited. Here we report the first low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) study on cleaned V3Si (111) single crystal surface. We observed a $\sqrt{3} \times \sqrt{3}$ 3 × 3 superstructure which displays mirror symmetry between adjacent terraces, indicating the surface is V-terminated and reconstructed. The tunneling spectrum shows full superconducting gap with double pairs of coherence peaks, but has a relatively small gap size with comparing to bulk $T_{\mathrm{C}}$ T C . Impurity induced in-gap state is absent on surface defects but present on introduced magnetic adatoms. Upon applying magnetic field, a hexagonal vortex lattice is visualized. Interestingly, the vortex size is found to be field dependent, and the coherence length measured from single vortex at low field is significantly larger than estimated value from bulk $H_{c2}$ H c 2 . These results reflect V3Si is a multi-band, s-wave superconductor.