Superconducting gap of H3S measured by tunnelling spectroscopy

Abstract

Several hydrogen-rich superconductors have been found to show unprecedentedly high critical temperatures^1,2,3,4, stimulating investigations into the nature of the superconductivity in these materials. Although their macroscopic superconducting properties are established^1,5,6,7, microscopic insights into the pairing mechanism remains unclear. Here we characterize the superconducting gap structure in the high-temperature superconductor H₃S and its deuterium counterpart D₃S by performing tunnelling spectroscopy measurements. The tunnelling spectra reveal that H₃S and D₃S both have a fully gapped structure, which could be well described by a single s-wave Dynes model, with gap values 2Δ of approximately 60 meV and 44 meV, respectively. Furthermore, we observed gap features of another likely H-depleted H_xS superconducting phase in a poorly synthesized hydrogen sulfide sample. Our work offers direct experimental evidence for superconductivity in the hydrogen-rich superconductor H₃S from a microscopic perspective. It validates the phonon-mediated mechanism of superconducting pairing and provides a foundation for further understanding the origins of high-temperature superconductivity in hydrogen-rich compounds.