Proximity effect in gold-coated YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7-delta) films studied by scanning tunneling spectroscopy

Scanning tunneling spectroscopy on gold layers overcoating c-axis YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7-delta) (YBCO) films reveals proximity-induced gap structures. The gap size reduces exponentially with the distance from a-axis facets, indicating that the proximity effect is primarily due to the (100) YBCO facets. The penetration depth of superconductivity into the gold is approximately 30 nm, in good agreement with estimations for the dirty limit. The extrapolated gap at the interface is approximately 15 meV, similar to the value of an s-wave component of the order parameter measured at the YBCO surface in recent point-contact experiments.