Discovery of segmented Fermi surface induced by Cooper pair momentum

Abstract

A sufficiently large supercurrent can close the energy gap in a superconductor and create gapless quasiparticles through the Doppler shift of quasiparticle energy caused by finite Cooper pair momentum. In this gapless superconducting state, zero-energy quasiparticles reside on a segment of the normal-state Fermi surface, whereas the remaining Fermi surface is still gapped. We use quasiparticle interference to image the field-controlled Fermi surface of bismuth telluride (Bi₂Te₃) thin films under proximity effect from the superconductor niobium diselenide (NbSe₂). A small applied in-plane magnetic field induces a screening supercurrent, which leads to finite-momentum pairing on the topological surface states of Bi₂Te₃. We identify distinct interference patterns that indicate a gapless superconducting state with a segmented Fermi surface. Our results reveal the strong impact of finite Cooper pair momentum on the quasiparticle spectrum.