2023/02/09 by Julia J. Goedecke, Goedecke, Julia J., Maciej Bazarnik +3
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Iron-based superconductors research #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) #Topological Materials and Phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2302.04550
openalex publication_date 2023/02/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Niobium with its highest transition temperature among all elemental superconductors has become a favorable substrate for realizing well-defined low-dimensional magnet-superconductor hybrid systems exhibiting novel types of exotic electronic states such as Majorana zero-energy modes. While a preparation procedure for obtaining atomically clean Nb(110) substrates has previously been reported, a suitable preparation method for clean Nb(111) surfaces is still lacking. Here, we report a recipe for cleaning Nb(111) surfaces based on an atomic hydrogen treatment followed by short flashes to elevated temperatures. The atomic surface structure of clean non-reconstructed Nb(111) is investigated by high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), as well as a surface reconstruction with a reduced atom density compared to the (111) plane of a bcc crystal resulting from a surface premelting at high annealing temperatures.