Tunnel junctions have been fabricated on vacuum-grown Sn crystals and an investigation of energy-gap anisotropy in Sn has been carried out. The reduced gap parameter 2Δ/k B T C was found to vary from 3.22 to 3.85 for the 34 tunnel junctions studied. A comparison of our results to those reported previously gave reasonably good agreement, although the range of gap values was considerably less in our case. We have tested our tunnel junctions with a view to the recent doubts raised about the validity of tunneling measurements of energy-gap anisotropy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
N. V. Zavaritskii, Sov. Phys.—JETP 18, 1260 (1964).
N. V. Zavaritskii, Sov. Phys.—JETP 21, 557 (1965).
M. L. A. MacVicar and R. M. Rose, J. Appl. Phys. 39, 1721 (1968).
B. L. Blackford and R. H. March, Phys. Rev. 186, 397 (1969).
K. Yoshihiro and W. Sasaki, J. Phys. Soc. Japan 28, 262 (1970).
J. C. Keister, L. S. Straus, and W. D. Gregory, J. Appl. Phys. 42, 642 (1971).
B. L. Blackford, J. Low Temp. Phys. 23, 43 (1976).
M. L. A. MacVicar, J. L. Bostock, and K. R. Milkove, in Anisotropy Effects in Superconductors, W. W. Weber, ed. (Plenum Press, 1977).
J. L. Bostock and M. L. A. MacVicar, in Anisotropy Effects in Superconductors, W. W. Weber, ed. (Plenum Press, 1977).
J. D. Fowler, Ph.D. Thesis, Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1970).
K. D. Hill, M.Sc. Thesis, Dalhousie Univ, Halifax, Canada (1979).
J. L. Miles and P. H. Smith, J. Electrochem. Soc. 110, 1240 (1963).
J. D. Leslie, V. Keith, and K. Knorr, J. Electrochem. Soc. 125, 44 (1978).
L. Holland, Vacuum Deposition of Thin Films (Chapman and Hall, London, 1961).
J. M. Rowell, W. L. McMillan, and W. L. Feldmann, Phys. Rev. B 3, 4065 (1971).
R. E. Frounfelker and W. M. Hirthe, Trans. Met. Soc. AIME 224, 196 (1962).
S. A. Bradford and R. W. Veith, Trans. Met. Soc. AIME 236, 232 (1966).
C. S. Barrett, Structure of Metals, 2nd ed. (McGraw-Hill, N.Y., 1952).
D. E. Banks and B. L. Blackford, Can. J. Phys. 51, 2505 (1973).
M. L. A. MacVicar and K. R. Milkove, private communication (1978).
B. N. Taylor and E. Burstein, Phys. Rev. Lett. 10, 17 (1963).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This work was supported in part by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Blackford, B.L., Hill, K. A tunneling investigation of energy-gap anisotropy in superconducting bulk tin crystals. J Low Temp Phys 43, 25–36 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00118620
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00118620