Tunneling spectra and superconducting gaps observed by scanning tunneling microscopy near the grain boundaries of FeSe0.3Te0.7 films

We used scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to study the tunneling spectra of FeSe0.3Te0.7 films with two orientations of the ab-planes and a connection ramp between them. We discovered that by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method, the a- and b-axis of the FeSe0.3Te0.7 film deposited on an Ar-ion-milled magnesium oxide (MgO) substrate were rotated 45 degrees with respect to those of MgO, whereas the a- and b-axis of the film grown on a pristine MgO substrate were parallel to those of MgO. With photolithography and this technique, we can prepare FeSe0.3Te0.7 films with two orientations on the same MgO substrate so that the connection between them forms a ramp at an angle of about 25 degrees to the substrate plane. In the planar region, for either the 0 degrees or 45 degrees orientation, we observed tunneling spectra with a superconducting gap of about 5 meV and 1.78 meV, respectively. However, a much larger gap at about 18 meV was observed in the ramp region. Furthermore, we observed a small zero-bias conductance peak (ZBCP) inside the large gap at T = 4.3 K. The ZBCP becomes smaller with increasing temperature and disappeared at temperature above 7 K. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.