"Super weakly" coupled superconductivity in ultrathin superconductor-normal-metal bilayers

Abstract

Tunneling measurements of the temperature dependence of the electronic density of states (DOS) of ultrathin bilayers of Pb and Ag reveal that their superconducting energy gap, $\Delta (T)$, evolves similarly to BCS predictions despite the presence of a large anomalous DOS at the Fermi energy that persists as $T\to 0$. The gap ratio, $\frac{2\Delta (0)}{k_B{T}_c}$, systematically decreases more than 20% below the BCS universal value of 3.52 in bilayers with the lowest superconducting transition temperatures, $T_c$; a behavior we deem super weakly coupled. A semi-quantitative model suggests that the reduced gap ratios result from a systematic depletion of the DOS available for pairing that occurs with the growth of the anomalous DOS at the Fermi energy.

10 pages, 4 figures