Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy in the Superconducting State and Vortex Cores of the beta-pyrochlore KOs2O6
arXiv:0704.0529 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.057004
Abstract
We performed the first scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements on the pyrochlore superconductor KOs2O6 (Tc = 9.6 K) in both zero magnetic field and the vortex state at several temperatures above 1.95 K. This material presents atomically flat surfaces, yielding spatially homogeneous spectra which reveal fully-gapped superconductivity with a gap anisotropy of 30%. Measurements performed at fields of 2 and 6 T display a hexagonal Abrikosov flux line lattice. From the shape of the vortex cores, we extract a coherence length of 31-40 Å, in agreement with the value derived from the upper critical field Hc2. We observe a reduction in size of the vortex cores (and hence the coherence length) with increasing field which is consistent with the unexpectedly high and unsaturated upper critical field reported.
5 pages, 4 figures, Revtex 4
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