Superconducting Sweet-Spot in Microcrystalline Graphite Revealed by Point-Contact Spectroscopy

Resumo

In this letter, we describe the observation of a magnetic field dependent electronic gap, suggestive of local superconductivity, in the point-contact spectrum of microcrystalline graphite. Magnetic field dependent point-contact spectroscopy has been carried out at a temperature of 1.8 K using an etched aluminum tip. At zero field, a gap structure in the differential conductance is observed, showing a gap of Δ = 4.2 meV. On applying magnetic fields of up to 500 mT, this gap gradually closes, following the theoretical prediction by Ginzburg and Landau for a fully flux-penetrated superconductor. By applying BCS-theory, we infer a critical superconducting temperature of 14 K.