We report on structural and electronic properties of superconducting nanohybrids made of Pb grown in the ultrahigh vacuum on the atomically clean surface of single crystals of topological Bi₂Te₃. In situ scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy demonstrated that the resulting network is composed of Pb-nanoislands dispersed on the surface and linked together by an amorphous atomic layer of Pb, which wets Bi₂Te₃. As a result, the superconducting state of the system is characterized by a thickness-dependent superconducting gap of Pb-islands and by a very unusual position-independent proximity gap between them. Furthermore, the data analysis and DFT calculations demonstrate that the Pb-wetting layer leads to significant modifications of both topological and trivial electronic states of Bi₂Te₃, which are responsible for the observed long-range proximity effect.

中文翻译：

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通过 Bi2Te3 拓扑绝缘体的原子平面界面的超导远程邻近效应

我们报告了在超高真空中在拓扑 Bi ₂ Te ₃单晶的原子清洁表面上生长的由 Pb 制成的超导纳米杂化物的结构和电子特性。原位扫描隧道显微镜和光谱学表明，所得网络由分散在表面的 Pb-纳米岛组成，并通过无定形 Pb 原子层连接在一起，Pb 润湿 Bi ₂ Te ₃. 因此，该系统的超导状态的特征在于 Pb 岛的厚度相关的超导间隙以及它们之间非常不寻常的与位置无关的邻近间隙。此外，数据分析和 DFT 计算表明，Pb 润湿层导致 Bi ₂ Te ₃拓扑和微电子态的显着改变，这是观察到的长程邻近效应的原因。