Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy on the RuSr2GdCu2O8 Compound

Topographic and spectroscopic information on GdSr2RuCu2O8 sintered pellets have been obtained by a home built low temperature Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) operating at 4.2 K. The topographic image of the surface showed non homogeneous samples with grains of typical size of about 100 nm. In many locations studied, the Tunneling Spectroscopy reveals the presence of charging effects in the current-voltage characteristics over a voltage range up to 100 mV. Two types of charging effects are clearly distinguished: one corresponds to the reduction of the tunneling conductance around zero bias and is attributed to the Coulomb blockade, and another onw, a stepwise increasing of the current as a function of the bias voltage is identified as Coulomb staircase regime. Besides these spurious charging effects, the current-voltage characteristics often show a pronounced non-linearity around 4.0 mV. This non-linearity, disappearing above the critical temperature of the materials, is connected to the superconducting gap in the GdSr2RuCu2O8.