Observation of Coulomb blockade and Coulomb staircases in superconducting Pr_0.8Sr_0.2NiO₂ films

Motivated by the discovery of superconductivity in the infinite-layer nickelate family, we report an experimental endeavor to clean the surface of nickelate superconductor Pr_0.8Sr_0.2NiO₂ films by Ar⁺ ion sputtering and subsequent annealing, and we study their electronic structures by cryogenic scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. The annealed surfaces are characterized by nanosized clusters and Coulomb staircases with periodicity inversely proportional to the projected area of the nanoclusters, consistent with a double-barrier tunneling junction model. Moreover, the dynamical Coulomb blockade effects are observed and result in well-defined energy gaps around the Fermi level, which correlate closely with the specific configuration of the junctions. These Coulomb blockade-related phenomena provide an alternative plausible cause of the observed gap structure that should be considered in the spectroscopic understanding of nickelate superconductors with the nanoclustered surface. © 2023 American Physical Society.