Design and construction of a point-contact spectroscopy rig with lateral scanning capability

Abstract

The design and realization of a cryogenic rig for point-contact spectroscopy measurements in the needle-anvil configuration is presented. Thanks to the use of two piezoelectric nano-positioners, the tip can move along the vertical ($z$) and horizontal ($x$) direction and thus the rig is suitable to probe different regions of a sample \textit{in situ}. Moreover, it can also form double point-contacts on different facets of a single crystal for achieving, e.g., an interferometer configuration for phase-sensitive measurements. For the latter purpose, the sample holder can also host a Helmholtz coil for applying a small transverse magnetic field to the junction. A semi-rigid coaxial cable can be easily added for studying the behavior of Josephson junctions under microwave irradiation. The rig can be detached from the probe and thus used with different cryostats. The performance of this new probe has been tested in a Quantum Design PPMS system by conducting point-contact Andreev reflection measurements on Nb thin films over large areas as a function of temperature and magnetic field.

arXiv comment7 pages, 7 figures, published in Rev. Sci. Instrum

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Full superconducting gap and type-I to type-II superconductivity transition in single crystalline NbGe2
• Hybridization gap in the heavy-fermion compound UPd${}_2$Al${}_3$ via quasiparticle scattering spectroscopy
• A modular point contact spectroscopy probe for sub-Kelvin applications
• Origin of gap-like behaviors in URu${}_2$Si${}_2$: Combined study via quasiparticle scattering spectroscopy and resistivity measurements
• A compact inertial nano-positioner operating at cryogenic temperatures