Tuning lower dimensional superconductivity with hybridization at a superconducting-semiconducting interface

The influence of interface electronic structure is vital to control lower dimensional superconductivity and its applications to gated superconducting electronics, and superconducting layered heterostructures. Lower dimensional superconductors are typically synthesized on insulating substrates to reduce interfacial driven effects that destroy superconductivity and delocalize the confined wavefunction. Here, we demonstrate that the hybrid electronic structure formed at the interface between a lead film and a semiconducting and highly anisotropic black phosphorus substrate significantly renormalizes the superconductivity in the lead film. Using ultra-low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, we characterize the renormalization of lead's quantum well states, its superconducting gap, and its vortex structure which show strong anisotropic characteristics. Density functional theory calculations confirm that the renormalization of superconductivity is driven by hybridization at the interface which modifies the confinement potential and imprints the anisotropic characteristics of the semiconductor substrate on selected regions of the Fermi surface of lead. Using an analytical model, we link the modulated superconductivity to an anisotropy that selectively tunes the superconducting order parameter in reciprocal space. These results illustrate that interfacial hybridization can be used to tune superconductivity in quantum technologies based on lower dimensional superconducting electronics.

Lower-dimensional superconductors are typically synthesized on insulating substrates. Here, the authors find that the hybrid electronic structure formed at the interface between a lead film and a semiconducting black phosphorus substrate significantly renormalizes the superconductivity in the lead film.