Unconventional superconductivity induced in Nb films by adsorbed chiral molecules

Abstract

Motivated by recent observations of chiral-induced magnetization and spin-selective transport we studied the effect of chiral molecules on conventional BCS superconductors. By applying scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we demonstrate that the singlet-pairing s-wave order parameter of Nb is significantly altered upon adsorption of chiral polyalanine alpha-helix molecules on its surface. The tunneling spectra exhibit zero-bias conductance peaks embedded inside gaps or gap-like features, suggesting the emergence of unconventional triplet-pairing components with either d-wave or p-wave symmetry, as corroborated by simulations. These results may open a way for realizing simple superconducting spintroinics devices.

arXiv comment12 pages and 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• An analytic model of chiral-induced spin selectivity
• Magnetic-Related States and Order Parameter Induced in a Conventional Superconductor by Nonmagnetic Chiral Molecules
• Structural Chirality and Electronic Chirality in Quantum Materials
• Interplay between friction and spin-orbit coupling as a source of spin polarization
• Interface-Induced Conservation of Momentum Leads to Chiral-Induced Spin Selectivity
• Magnetochiral Charge Pumping due to Charge Trapping and Skin Effect in Chirality-Induced Spin Selectivity
• Unconventional Meissner screening induced by chiral molecules in a conventional superconductor
• Effects of Rashba-spin-orbit coupling on superconducting boron-doped nanocrystalline diamond films: evidence of interfacial triplet superconductivity
• Topologically nontrivial and trivial zero modes in chiral molecules
• Single-enantiomer spin polarisers in superconducting junctions
• Topological superconductivity in helical crystals