Magnetic-related States and Order Parameter Induced in a Conventional Superconductor by Nonmagnetic Chiral Molecules

Hybrid ferromagnetic/superconducting systems are well-known for hosting intriguing phenomena such as emergent triplet superconductivity at their interfaces and the appearance of in-gap, spin-polarized Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) states bound to magnetic impurities on a superconducting surface. In this work we demonstrate that similar phenomena can be induced on a surface of a conventional superconductor by chemisorbing nonmagnetic chiral molecules. Conductance spectra measured on NbSe₂ flakes over which chiral α-helix polyalanine molecules were adsorbed exhibit, in some cases, in-gap states nearly symmetrically positioned around zero bias that shift with magnetic field, akin to YSR states, as corroborated by theoretical simulations. Other samples show evidence for a collective phenomenon of hybridized YSR-like states giving rise to unconventional, possibly triplet superconductivity, manifested in the conductance spectra by the appearance of a zero bias conductance that diminishes, but does not split, with magnetic field. The transition between these two scenarios appears to be governed by the density of adsorbed molecules.