Microscopic superconducting parameters from tunneling inA15Nb-Sn

Abstract
High-quality tunnel junctions have been fabricated on thin films of A15 Nb-Sn (20-25 at.%) using oxidized a-Si tunnel barriers and Pb counterelectrodes. These junctions have been used to measure changes in the gap, the transition temperature Tc, and the tunneling density of states with composition in this important high-Tc superconductor. With the use of the proximity-effect-modified data reduction scheme developed by Arnold and Wolf, values for α2F(ω) and μ* are obtained. As the Sn content approaches stoichiometry, the lowest-energy phonon branch in α2F(ω) both increases in weight and shifts to lower energy. These two effects combine to produce the increases in λ as stoichiometry is approached, and at the same time can account for the observed increase in 2ΔkBTc. The values of μ* remain essentially constant as a function of composition, and hence show no evidence for an increased Coulomb interaction with increasing disorder as recently proposed by Anderson et al.