Scanning tunneling spectroscopy on Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+delta single crystals

We report low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy on high quality Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+delta crystals. We present atomic-resolution topography and show spectroscopic data acquired on two different samples. In one case, we obtained an extremely homogeneous sample with T-c = 109 K and a transition width of only 1 K, and with Delta(p) = 60 meV over at least 50 nm. In the other case, the respective parameters were T-c = 111 K and Delta T-c= 1.7 K, it yielded a slightly less homogeneous sample with Delta(p) = 45 meV. We evidence strong similarities with Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta and discuss the doping level of our samples. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.