Recent experiments show that an atomic step on the surface of atomically thin metallic films can strongly affect electronic transport. Here we reveal multiple and versatile effects that such a surface step can have on superconductivity in ultrathin films. By solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations self-consistently in this regime, where quantum confinement dominates the emergent physics, we show that the electronic structure is profoundly modified on the two sides of the step, as is the spatial distribution of the superconducting order parameter and its dependence on temperature and electronic gating. Furthermore, the surface step changes nontrivially the transport properties both in the proximity-induced superconducting pair correlations and the Josephson effect, depending on the step height. These results offer a new route to tailor superconducting circuits and design atomically thin heterojunctions made of one same material.

中文翻译：

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表面台阶对原子薄膜中超导性的多方面影响

最近的实验表明，原子薄的金属膜表面上的原子台阶会强烈影响电子传输。在这里，我们揭示了这种表面台阶可能会对超薄薄膜的超导性产生多种多样的影响。通过在这种量子约束主导新兴物理学的机制中自洽地求解Bogoliubov-de Gennes方程，我们证明了电子结构在台阶的两侧都得到了深刻的修改，超导阶数参数的空间分布也是如此以及它对温度和电子门控的依赖。此外，取决于台阶高度，表面台阶在邻近感应超导对相关性和约瑟夫森效应中均显着地改变了输运性质。