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# The European Photon Imaging Camera on XMM-Newton: The MOS Cameras

## 1 Introduction

The EPIC instrument on XMM-Newton (Jansen et al., 2001) provides focal plane imaging and spectrometry for the three X-ray telescopes. Each telescope has an objective comprising a nested, 58 shell, Wolter 1 X-ray mirror (Aschenbach et al., 2000), of focal length 7.5 metres, and geometric effective area 1500 cm2; there is one EPIC at the focus of each telescope. Two of the telescopes are fitted with the X-ray gratings of the Reflection Grating Spectrometer (den Herder et al., 2001). The gratings divert 50% of the flux out of the EPIC beams; with allowance for structural obscuration, 44% of the original flux reaches two of the EPIC cameras; these contain MOS CCDs (Short et al., 1998) and are referred to as the MOS cameras. The third telescope has an unobstructed beam; the EPIC instrument at the focus of this telescope uses PN CCDs (Strüder et al., 2001) and is referred to as the PN camera. All three cameras have an identical forward section that contains a filter wheel, door, calibration source, radiation shielding, the interface to the spacecraft focal plane bulkhead, and the internal bulkhead that forms part of the camera vacuum enclosure. The rear part of each camera that contains the CCDs and the cooling system is different in construction for the MOS (figure 1) and PN cameras. EPIC also includes the EPIC Radiation Monitor System, to record the ambient proton and electron flux (Boër et al., 1995). It provides warning of a radiation flux increase to provide for automatic shut down of the instrument. This paper describes the common items and the MOS cameras, while an accompanying paper, by Strüder et al. (2001) describes the PN camera.

## 2 The EPIC Camera Configuration

Each EPIC camera has three sections: the stand-off structure that contains the filter wheel, door, calibration source, interface to the spacecraft, the radiation shield and the internal vacuum bulkhead; the cryostat section that contains the CCDs and electronic interfaces, and the radiator that provides the cooling for the CCDs. The stand-off-structure is identical for all three cameras, and is described here; the remaining sections are different for PN (Strüder et al., 2001) and MOS (see below).

### 2.1 The Stand-off Structure

The structure is shown in figure 2. The filter wheel with its gears and motor is located on the vacuum side of the bulkhead (figure 2, bottom panel). It has six locations for filters, and six small apertures through which the calibration source can shine onto the CCDs. The source itself is mounted in the bulkhead, on the vacuum side. The aperture in the bulkhead through which the X-rays reach the CCDs is closed before and during launch by the door. The door is mounted on a spring-loaded arm, and is clamped by an integral set of double stainless steel bellows that, when pressurised, press a plate on to an O-ring mounted in the bulkhead. When the nitrogen pressure of 4 bar is released, the bellows retract, and the door swings out of the aperture, under action of the spring. The CCDs are protected from damaging proton irradiation by at least 3 cm of aluminium shielding in all directions, except the field of view.

### 2.2 The MOS Cryostat

The cryostat interfaces to the stand-off structure. The cold-finger is supported by aluminium and GFRP components forming a doubly insulated structure with a secondary thermal shield, thermally linked to the outer radiator. The CCDs are mounted on the end of the cold finger, and the rear 3 cm shielding is integral with the CCD mounting plate. The CCDs themselves are mounted on individual packages. Each package slides in a channel in the mounting plate; the CCDs are located accurately by this channel (figure 4). The heaters for thermal control are incorporated in the mounting plate, which is at the operational temperature of the CCDs ($``$170 K). Electrical connections to the CCDs and to the heaters are made with thin flexible printed circuits, to provide a thermal break. The preamplifiers and other electrical components are mounted on an external conventional multi-layer PCB. The PCB also acts as the vacuum feed-through to bring signals and power into the cryostat. The cryostat is closed at the rear with two 50 micron stainless steel foils that link the outer and inner thermal shields to the cold finger; they provide a vacuum and EMC tight connection with minimal thermal conductivity.

### 2.3 The MOS Radiators

The MOS cryostat is cooled passively (Butler & Goodall, 2000) by the system of three nested conical radiators. This shape is necessitated by the distance between the CCD focal plane and the top of the spacecraft sun-shield. The outer radiators provide successive thermal shielding for the inner radiator which is attached to the CCD via the cold finger. This inner radiator is mechanically supported by the cold finger and has no contact with the other radiators. The secondary radiator is connected to the thermal shroud surrounding the CCD and cold finger via a flexible thermal coupling. Doubly aluminised Mylar foils independently suspended between successive radiator cones provide additional shielding thus enhancing performance and robustness against deterioration in space of the thermal finish of surfaces. The radiators are made of spun aluminium of 0.6 mm thickness. The inner radiator is painted with white epoxy paint to give maximum emissivity, coupled with low absorptivity for Earth albedo during perigee. The cooling system provides a minimum temperature at the CCD of 140 K.

## 3 The Electronics

The electronic block diagram is shown in figure 3 (Villa et al., 1996). The preamplifiers are mounted on the cryostat PCB, integral with the camera. These interface via the harness to the analogue electronics box EMAE. This conditions the signals and contains the CCD clock sequencers. The system is partially redundant with one set of eight channels reading out the seven CCDs in a camera. There are two readout nodes on each CCD. The outer six CCDs are normally read from one node, and the central CCD can be read from one node, or for faster response by two in parallel. The second of each pair of processing chains is connected to the alternate nodes of the outer CCDs; multiplexers allow crossover in the case of failure. The EMAE also contains the clocking sequencers that generate the trains of pulses to transfer the charge released by the X-rays to the readout node. The control and recognition unit EMCR (Pigot et al., 2000; Ferrando et al., 1999) has the main function of converting the image read out from each CCD into an X-ray photon event list. This uses fast logic (an ASIC) to subtract offsets so that the energy scale starts at zero; it identifies geometric patterns of pixels using a look up table, programmable from the ground, to distinguish between those produced by X-rays and those produced by cosmic rays. It also adds up the charge over the pattern in each event to enable the X-ray energy to be determined accurately. The output is an event list with up to four different energy parameters attached, together with the pattern shape. Converting the image into an event list results in significant data compression, because of the sparse nature of the X-ray image. The pattern recognition enables cosmic rays to be rejected on-board. The other function of the EMCR is to store and transmit CCD clock sequences for the different modes to the CCD clock sequencers in the EMAE; it also provides the control signals to the filter wheel and timestamps CCD frames. Power conditioning and distribution is provided by the voltage controller, EMVC. The data handling and interface to the spacecraft data system and telemetry is provided by the EMDH (Villa et al., 1996). This receives data from the EMCR and conditions it for the telemetry. It receives, distributes, and executes commands; it also contains the on-board software that controls the instrument modes. The EMDH controls all instrument safety aspects and is the interface to the spacecraft for software upload, command and data handling.

## 4 The CCDs

There are seven EEV type 22 CCDs in the focal plane of each MOS camera (Short et al., 1998), arranged as shown in figure 4. The central CCD is at the focal point on the optical axis of the telescope while the outer six are stepped towards the mirror by 4.5 mm to follow approximately the focal plane curvature, and improve the focus for off-axis sources. The CCDs are buttable with a dead region of less than 300 microns wide on three sides; to minimise the dead space, adjacent CCDs are stepped by about 1mm to overlap by 300 microns. The EEV CCD22 is a three-phase frame transfer device on high resistivity epitaxial silicon with an open-electrode structure; it has a useful quantum efficiency in the energy range 0.2 to 10 keV. The imaging area is $``$ 2.5 x 2.5 cm, so that a mosaic of seven covers the focal plane 62 mm in diameter, equivalent to 28.4. The imaging section has 600 x 600, 40 micron square, pixels; one pixel covers 1.1 x 1.1 arc seconds on the field of view; 15 pixels cover the mirror PSF half energy width of $`15^{\prime \prime }`$. The readout register is split into two sections, ending in a readout node. The full CCD image can be read out using either node, or read out using both nodes simultaneously, to halve the readout time. The low energy response of the conventional front illuminated CCD is poor below $``$700 eV because of absorption in the electrode structure. For EPIC, one of the three electrodes has been enlarged to occupy a greater fraction of each pixel, and holes have been etched through this enlarged electrode to the gate oxide. This gives an ’open’ fraction of the total pixel area of 40%; this region has a high transmission for very soft X-rays that would otherwise be absorbed in the electrodes. In the etched areas, the surface potential is pinned to the substrate potential by means of a ’pinning implant’. High energy efficiency is defined by the resistivity of the epitaxial silicon ( around 4000 Ohm-cm). The epitaxial layer is 80 microns thick (p-type). The actual mean depletion of the flight CCDs is between 35 and 40 microns: the open phase region of each pixel is not fully depleted. The two MOS cameras are arranged on the spacecraft focal plane bulkhead so that the CCDs are orthogonal. This means that the 300 micron gaps between the outer CCDs in one camera are covered by their opposite numbers in the other camera. The gaps around the central CCD in either camera exactly overlap: so a source falling in this gap in MOS1 will also be in the gap in MOS2. The PN CCDs are arranged at 45 degrees to the two MOS cameras so the field of view is fully covered among the three EPIC cameras.

## 5 The EPIC MOS Readout Modes

The basic readout speed of the MOS CCDs is 2.6 seconds; this is the same as the integration time, and is available continuously on all seven CCDs in each camera. The only reason to change this is if the source is bright: pile up may be a problem; or there may be an opportunity for fast timing observations. The modes comprise ’large and small window mode’, ’refreshed frame store mode’ (see Willingale et al., 2001) and ’timing mode’. Window mode can be applied to the central CCD and independently to the peripheral CCDs in pairs (not used at present). A window is defined on the CCD (windows need not be central on the CCD) and rows and pixels outside this window are discarded on readout. Since most of the readout time is taken up by measuring the pixel charge accurately, this results in a much faster readout and integration. Two window sizes are currently implemented: Large window 300 $`\times `$ 300 pixels centred - 0.9 s integration time. Small window 100 $`\times `$ 100 centred - 0.3 s integration time. In full frame mode, an electronic chopper can be implemented - ”Refreshed frame store mode” which discards most of the X-rays collected during readout and integrates for 0.2 seconds. The overall cycle time is 2.9 s leading to a duty cycle of 1:14.5. Selection of the window size is a compromise between readout speed and field of view coverage: source extent, and the PSF wings may require a larger window. The window is only applied to the central CCD, the peripheral CCDs remain fully operational and the only area lost is the region outside the window on the central CCD. For timing mode - also known as ”Fast mode” - 100 rows in a central window 100 pixels wide are compressed into one dimension, parallel to the CCD readout register to give fast time slices of the incoming X-ray flux. The CCD output node is only reset once per row to give a constant timebase (unlike the standard ”reset-on-demand”), and the EDU event processing is simplified so less data has to be telemetered. MOS1 and MOS2 are orthogonal, so two projections at right angles are available if both cameras are in timing mode. This mode gives a timing resolution of 1.75 ms per row or time slice. An experimental full width timing mode can also be implemented to give around 10 ms resolution.

The choice of mode is based on the extent of the source and its brightness; for the majority of sources the basic mode is acceptable, and window or timing modes are selected to deal with pile-up in bright sources (Ballet, 1999). For source strengths below a few counts per second, the flux within the PSF is small enough that the probability of interference between the pixel patterns of individual photons is small. In this case there is no error in either flux or photon energy determination, and pile-up is negligible. As the flux increases the patterns from successive photons detected in the 2.6 s integration time start to interfere, and pile-up becomes significant. In the MOS cameras the dominant effect of pile up is a loss of flux; there is little distortion of the energy spectrum. This is because early pile-up results in the generation of non-X-ray-like event patterns, caused by contact between two genuine patterns; such events are removed automatically from the data stream by the EMCR, and do not appear in the spectrum. The PSF has a very sharp core, and this means that the flux-loss associated with pile-up occurs first in the core of the PSF, while the wings remain unaffected: a typical indicator of pile-up is a source cross section in the image with a depressed central region. Since flux removal is the main effect it is moderately safe to form the spectrum from the remaining flux even though the centre of the PSF is missing. In general it is safe to err towards imaging mode or large windows, unless the source is very bright.

Timing is related to the CCD readout and through the electronics to the spacecraft clock. The precision of timing is limited to the effective integration time. The accuracy is achieved via the spacecraft clock to UTC, and for a given sample there is a $`\pm 40\mu `$s jitter caused by the fine time code sampling of this clock.

## 6 The EPIC MOS Response Function

The CCDs image the entire field of view and give an energy value and position to all X-ray photons detected. The flux and spectrum of X-ray sources in the field of view can be determined from the charge measured in the individual photon event by the EMCR, the redistribution matrix of the CCD, and its quantum efficiency. These have been determined by a combination of ground calibration using the Orsay synchrotron (Pigot et al., 1999; Trifoglio et al., 1998), and celestial source calibration since launch. The current relative accuracy of calibration is better than 10% over the energy range from 0.2 to 10 keV. X-ray photons falling on the CCD can be absorbed in the electrode structure, in the depleted silicon, or in the field-free un-depleted silicon. A photon absorbed in the electrode structure is lost; one converting in the depleted region is detected with all its energy; one converting in the field free region is detected, but some energy may be lost. These factors go together to make up the quantum efficiency of the device. In the case of the CCD22 the open phase produces additional complication because the low energy photons detected can interact either in the pinning implant, or in the depleted silicon beneath it. In the implant region a certain fixed amount of charge can be lost. So for soft photons there may be a low energy ’shoulder’ on the peak observed for a monochromatic X- ray beam, or even a double peak; this degrades the energy resolution. These surface loss events have been carefully calibrated using data from monochromatic X-ray beams in the Orsay synchrotron (Pigot et al., 1999; Dhez et al., 1997), and celestial sources; some examples are shown in figure 5 for different energies. This effect is fully taken into account in the calibration files. The quantum efficiency of the CCDs is a smooth function except near the edges of silicon and oxygen; the carbon and aluminium edges are apparent in the thin and medium filter responses, tin appears as well in the thick filter (the gold edges of the mirror are apparent in the overall quantum efficiency). The response near these edges was measured using different beams at the Orsay synchrotron. The measurements have been linked together using celestial sources, especially BL Lac objects that have a smooth featureless spectrum, and the Crab nebula spectrum, which is likewise featureless. The current quantum efficiency curve is shown in figure 6. It varies a little from CCD to CCD at very low energies. The energy assigned to a photon is calculated from the charge in the pixel pattern. Most of the photons detected in EPIC MOS give single pixel events. For two, three, and four pixel events, the charge is summed over the relevant pixels. The event patterns recognised by the EMCR are shown in figure 7. Patterns zero to twelve are X-ray events while the rest are not, with the exception of pattern 31. This is formed by cosmic rays and also by deeply interacting energetic X-rays. All of these effects are included in the published calibrations of the EPIC MOS; we are working to improve calibration, and this will be reflected in subsequent issues.

## 7 The Filters

The EPIC cameras are provided with light and UV blocking filters. There are four filters in each camera (Villa et al., 1998; Stephan et al., 1996). Two are thin filters made of 1600 Å of poly-imide film with 400 Å of aluminium evaporated on to one side; one is the medium filter made of the same material but with 800 Å of aluminium deposited on it; and one is the thick filter. This is made of 3300 Å thick Polypropylene with 1100 Å of aluminium and 450 Å of tin evaporated on the film. Poly-imide is opaque to UV, but polypropylene is not, hence the tin. The filters are self-supporting and 76 mm in diameter. The remaining two positions on the filter wheel are occupied by the closed and open positions respectively. The closed position has 1.05 mm of aluminium, and the open position has nothing. The former is used to protect the CCDs from soft protons in orbit, while the open position can be used for observations where the light flux is very low, and no filter is needed. Light falling on the CCDs increases the baseline charge level in the exposed pixels; this adds on to charge measured when an X-ray photon falls on an affected pixel. It only has an effect where X-ray photons fall, e.g. a bright optical point source in an image will have no effect on X-ray sources unless it coincides or overlaps with one of them; scattering and the wings of the PSF have to be taken into account in defining overlap. Diffuse illumination will have an effect over the whole focal plane. In general diffuse optical illumination is very low in EPIC, so the filter should be selected for the optical flux of the source being observed. The X-ray transmission as a function of photon energy are shown in figure 8.

## 8 On-Board Calibration Source

A calibration source is fitted to each camera to allow the absolute energy to be calculated to an accuracy of a few eV; this is important for line velocity measurements. The source uses iron 55, and provides Al Kα, Mn Kα and Mn Kβ at 1.5, 5.9 and 6.5 keV respectively. It can illuminate the whole focal plane, for any filter position. This enables the gain of the system to be measured for the same conditions and time as the observation. It should be noted that for all CCDs there is a dependence of measured charge on the position where the photon was detected within the CCD. This is caused by charge loss during transfer of the photon event from its detected position to the readout node. This is expressed by the Charge Transfer Efficiency of the CCD. The monochromatic synchrotron data was used to determine and correct the average charge transfer losses for the MOS CCD readout, prior to generating the response function. The CTE is degraded by radiation damage in-orbit, and already this can be detected after nine months in orbit, see figure 9. However, this degradation, if left uncorrected, would represent a loss of spectral resolution of less than 2%. The spatial correction employed will be progressively updated during the life of the EPIC MOS cameras.

## 9 Radiation Damage and Precautions

EPIC CCDs (MOS & PN), have a high degree of immunity to ionisation damage, they are however sensitive to displacement-damage by protons with energy between 150 keV and 10 MeV: atoms in the silicon lattice are displaced, creating a damage site of locally low potential wherein charge can be trapped. Damage sites in the buried channel, through which the X-ray generated charge is transferred to the read-out node, hold back some electrons; delayed electrons are not included when the charge due to the X-ray event is determined. They are released later by thermal motion, the trapping time depending inversely on the temperature of the CCD. By increasing the density of charge passing through the buried channel, the loss can be reduced for normal operating temperatures; this occurs because a leading electron fills the trap, which then remains inactive, until the electron is released. The other electrons pass the inactive trap safely. By confining the electrons to a narrow buried channel during transfer, fewer traps are encountered and the charge-loss is further reduced. This is the reason for the current high CTE of the MOS CCDs (Holland et al., 1990). If the CCD is operated at a very low temperature (Holland, 1992) then the trapping time becomes very long, and the trap is essentially masked permanently. The MOS cameras have reserve cooling power to allow operation at 140 K. This precaution is not yet necessary, but will, when damage becomes severe, recover most of the consequent CTE loss as shown in figure 10. Presently the CCDs are operated at 170 K, to minimise condensation build-up on the CCDs. Because the most damaging protons are non-relativistic (they have a high displacement cross-section), the 3 cm shielding is effective (below 30 MeV). More energetic protons can penetrate the shielding, but their flux and cross section are much lower. In combination with the extra cooling this shielding was expected to be sufficient to protect the CCDs over the ten-year lifetime of XMM-Newton, taking into account the orbital evolution. It is now known that very soft protons can be focused by the X-ray mirrors, and reach the CCDs, by-passing the shielding (Rasmussen et al., 1999).

These protons stop in less than a micron of material; in MOS CCDs the buried channel lies only 0.5 microns below the surface, so they can cause very significant damage; two orders of magnitude greater than 10 MeV protons. The large effective area of the XMM-Newton mirrors makes this focused soft proton flux very high, and the potential for damage very serious. Fortunately the closed position of the filter wheel places 1.05 mm of aluminium in the focused beam and completely stops the protons. For all perigee passages the filter wheel is rotated to the closed position before the spacecraft encounters the outer radiation belts. This has prevented damage by soft protons in the belts. Soft protons are also found outside the belts, probably accelerated in the magnetopause. When the flux of these is high the filter wheel is rotated to the closed position to protect the CCDs. Lower fluxes can contribute to the background in the image during observations. They stop close to the surface of the silicon and generate single pixel events with a flat energy spectrum; they are indistiguishable from X-rays. It is not known if the prevalence of these clouds of soft protons will change as solar activity decreases, or as the orbit of XMM-Newton evolves. On average several hours per orbit have a high soft proton background, or are lost completely because the filter wheel has to be closed. Figure 11 shows an image collected while the soft proton flux was relatively high compared with a low proton flux image. There have been two large solar flares so far since the launch of XMM-Newton. These generate high fluxes of penetrating protons that cause CCD damage through the shielding; they are not focused by the mirrors. After the first flare a measurable degradation of the CTE was observed, equivalent to several months’ passages through the radiation belts. Thus the CTE falls steadily due to the latter effect while solar flares generate steps in the curve, as shown in figure 9. If the CTE is degraded seriously, and extra cooling cannot recover it, annealing of the CCDs can be attempted by heating the CCD mounting plate to 130C. This should remove the damage, but carries a risk to the CCDs and their connections. It will only be used as a last resort.

### 9.1 Contamination

When there is a direct path from the interior of the optical bench to the cold surface of the CCD, it is possible for ice to build up on the CCD caused by water outgassed by the spacecraft. The filter, which is at about -20C, provides a warm primary barrier to molecules, but the gaps around the filter can allow molecules to reach the CCD surface by several bounces. So far there is no evidence of ice build-up. If this is detected later on, then the filter wheel can be put in the open position and the CCDs heated to drive off the ice.

## 10 Background

The dark current and effects of light will be negligible in most circumstances for EPIC opbservations. Cosmic rays are removed on-board by the EMCR. The background in the image therefore consists of X-ray like events, and some electronic pattern noise. The latter appeared in orbit, not having been seen during ground testing, and results in a grid pattern appearing on images integrated for a long time. It is probably generated by low level EMC but the mechanism remains obscure. Fortunately only a few pixels are affected per frame, and these can easily be removed from the image by a simple algorithm, with negligible loss of X-rays. The remaining background is X-ray like and cannot be removed. It is made up of the small residuum from the removal of cosmic rays, the diffuse X-ray background, Compton interactions of cosmic and locally generated gamma rays, and soft protons. The soft protons can be removed or minimised by excluding periods when they are present; this is indicated by flaring in the count-rate from the outer CCDs. Non-flaring periods may represent an absence of soft protons or simply a low and steady flux of them. The gamma ray and cosmic ray induced background cannot be removed. The flux appears to be twice as big as predicted for this orbit; this may be related to the active state of the sun, or to inadequacies in the radiation models. The spectra of the soft proton and gamma induced backgrounds are much flatter than those of the diffuse X-ray background and of X-ray sources. So the effect on sensitivity is more marked at the higher energies. The cameras were designed to minimise the number of different materials that can generate fluorescent X-ray lines. Only silicon and aluminium lines appear in the background, at fairly low levels.

###### Acknowledgements.

XMM-Newton is an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and the USA (NASA). EPIC was developed by the EPIC Consortium led by the Principal Investigator, Dr. M. J. L. Turner. The consortium comprises the following Institutes: University of Leicester, University of Birmingham, (UK); CEA/Saclay, IAS Orsay, CESR Toulouse, (France); IAAP Tuebingen, MPE Garching,(Germany); IFC Milan, ITESRE Bologna, OAPA Palermo, Italy. EPIC is funded by: PPARC, CEA, CNES, DLR and ASI. The EPIC collaboration wishes to thank EEV Ltd, now Marconi Advanced Technology, MMS Stevenage and LABEN S.p.A-Milano for their dedication to the EPIC program.


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# Evidence for Surface Andreev Bound states in Cuprate Superconductors from Penetration Depth Measurements

\[

## Abstract

Tunneling and theoretical studies have suggested that Andreev bound states form at certain surfaces of unconventional superconductors. Through studies of the temperature and field dependence of the in-plane magnetic penetration depth $`\lambda _{ab}`$ at low temperature, we have found strong evidence for the presence of these states in clean single crystal YBCO and BSCCO. Crystals cut to expose a  interface show a strong upturn in $`\lambda _{ab}`$ at around 7 K, when the field is oriented so that the supercurrents flow around this surface. In YBCO this upturn is completely suppressed by a field of $`0.1`$ T.

\]

The low temperature behavior of the magnetic penetration depth ($`\lambda `$) has played an important role in identifying the bulk order parameter in the high $`T_c`$ cuprates. Within the usual BCS quasiparticle picture, the temperature and field dependence of $`\lambda `$ are determined by the energy dependence of the quasiparticle density of states $`N(E)`$, and hence give information about the magnitude of the energy gap, but not its phase. Recently however, it has been suggested that there is another contribution to $`\lambda `$ which arises from current carrying, zero energy, surface Andreev bound states (ABS) , which form if there is $`\pi `$ phase shift between the different lobes of the order parameter . The observation of these states provides a key piece of evidence backing the $`d`$-wave scenario in the cuprates. In addition, this extra contribution has important consequences for the interpretation of all surface impedance measurements in non-conventional superconductors.

The zero bias conductance peak (ZBCP) observed in tunneling measurements has been interpreted as resulting from ABS . Theoretically, ABS are expected to form most strongly on  surfaces, with the amplitude reducing monotonically to zero as the surface rotates to the ,  or  directions. Experimentally however , the ZBCP is seen for tunneling into all surfaces except . This has been interpreted as resulting from surface roughness and/or nanofaceting . The contribution of the ABS to $`\lambda `$ can be understood simply by noting the increase in the penetration depth $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda `$ due to thermally excited quasiparticles is given by

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda (T)}{\lambda (0)}=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\frac{N(E)}{N(0)}\frac{f}{E}𝑑E$$
(1)
where $`f`$ is the Fermi function. For a $`d`$-wave superconductor $`N(E)|E|`$, which gives $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda (T)/\lambda (0)=\alpha T`$, where $`\alpha `$ depends on the angular slope of the energy gap near the nodes. Surface bound states add a singular contribution $`\delta (E)`$ to $`N(E)`$ which when substituted into Eq. (1) adds a divergent $`1/T`$ term to $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda (T)`$. The relative size of $`1/T`$ term depends on the orientation of the surface and the band structure of the material . The ABS contribution to $`\lambda `$ is highly non-linear in field, as the superflow Doppler shifts of the position of the bound state peaks. It is therefore expected that the $`1/T`$ term is suppressed with a relatively weak magnetic field.

In this letter, we report measurements of the temperature and field dependence of the in-plane penetration depth of high quality YBa2Cu3O6.9 and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 single crystals which provide strong evidence of the existence of ABS in these materials. Evidence for an ABS contribution to $`\lambda `$ have previously been identified from studies of irradiated thin films  and grain boundary junctions . Here, we have been able to investigate the ABS more fully by measuring both the field and temperature dependence of $`\lambda `$ and by studying clean single crystals which give us more control over the direction of the Meissner currents and are free from intrinsic defects.

We have identified the ABS contribution to $`\lambda `$ in YBCO by three different techniques. First, we have exploited the anticipated strong dependence of the ABS term on the crystal surface orientation by measuring several crystals which have been cut to expose different surfaces. Second, each crystal was measured in two orientations, with the probe field $`h`$ parallel to either the $`ab`$-plane or the $`c`$-axis. Although the in-plane penetration depth is probed in both these orientations, the Meissner currents flow along quite different surfaces in the two cases. For $`ha`$ or $`b`$ the currents flow mostly along  surfaces where no ABS contribution is expected, whereas for $`hc`$ the currents flow around the edges of the crystal and ABS contributions are expected provided that a non / surface is present. This field orientation dependence also provides an important check for impurity effects or isotropic paramagnetic contributions. Third, direct evidence for the presence of ABS states can be inferred from our measurements of the field dependence of $`\lambda _{ab}`$.

Single crystals of YBCO were grown in yttria stabilized zirconia crucibles , and were annealed for 3 weeks at 500C in flowing oxygen to obtain optimal doping ($`T_c94`$K, width $`0.2`$ K). Optical microscopy and x-ray diffraction showed that the crystals selected for this work were $`>`$90% untwinned. The BSCCO crystal was grown by the floating zone method and was annealed at 350C in 0.1% 02 to produce a slightly underdoped composition with $`T_c=91`$ K . Measurements of changes in $`\lambda `$ as a function of temperature and field were performed with resonant LC circuit driven by a tunnel diode operating at 11.7 MHz, with frequency stability of a few parts in $`10^{10}`$ Hz$`^{\frac{1}{2}}`$. The dc field $`H`$ is always collinear with the RF probe field $`h`$.

The YBCO samples were measured in three geometries with the field applied parallel to either the $`a`$, $`b`$ or $`c`$ axes. For $`h`$ parallel to either $`a`$ or $`b`$ the measured frequency shift is directly proportional to $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{a,b}`$ . In the third configuration ($`hc`$) the calibration is more difficult because of the large demagnetizing factor. The calibration factor can be found either by normalizing the slope of the data to that for $`ha,b`$ for 20 K$`<T<`$30 K where we expect the two configurations to be measuring the same quasiparticle response, or by using a recently developed approximate analytic solution for the screening currents in this geometry . We find that both methods agree to within experimental error ($`\pm 5`$%). We denote the change in penetration depth relative to its value at our base temperature by $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab}^{a,b}(T)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab}^c(T)`$ for $`ha,b`$ and $`hc`$ respectively.

The temperature dependence of $`\lambda _{ab}`$ for four samples of YBCO in the two field orientations is shown in Fig. 1. It can seen that for all samples $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{a,b}^{ab}(T)`$ is highly linear at low temperature indicating high sample quality . However, the data in the second field orientation \[$`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab}^c(T)`$\] is markedly different below $`710`$K. There is also a clear correlation between the size of this upturn in $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab}^c(T)`$ and the shape of the sample. In the sequence of samples from A$``$D the proportion of non / surface increases along with the size of upturn in $`\lambda (T)`$. These strong orientation dependencies of the upturn are clear evidence for it originating from ABS.

Detailed calculations of the ABS contribution to $`\lambda `$, including the effects of ABS broadening, have been performed by Barash et al.  For a simple cylindrical Fermi surface the magnitude ($`\beta `$) of the ABS $`1/T`$ term was calculated to be $`\mathrm{}v_fg(\theta )/[6k_B\lambda (0)]`$, where $`g(\theta )=||\mathrm{cos}^3(\theta )||\mathrm{sin}^3(\theta )||`$ is the dependence of the upturn on the angle ($`\theta `$) the surface makes with the  direction, and $`v_f`$ is the Fermi velocity. The effect of a finite ABS lifetime is to broaden the $`\delta `$-function contribution to $`N(E)`$ making the divergence of $`\lambda (T)`$ weaker. The results of the numerical calculations in Ref.  can be approximated (for $`T0`$) by replacing the $`1/T`$ term by $`1/(T+T^{})`$.

By subtracting the data for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab}^{a,b}(T)`$ from $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab}^c(T)`$ we can isolate the ABS contribution. Fitting this to $`c/(T+T^{})`$ gives $`T^{}=0.8\pm `$0.4K and $`c=100\pm 30`$ ÅK for samples C and D, implying that the ABS states are only slightly broadened. The calculation of Barash et al. yields a somewhat larger value $`c=10^3`$ ÅK for these crystals (assuming a cylindrical FS and $`v_f=2\times 10^5`$ ms-1), but we note that many factors, such as band-structure or diffuse scattering, can reduce $`c`$ from this simple theoretical estimate.

We have attempted to test the correlation of the size of the upturn in $`\lambda `$ with the crystal shape in a more quantitative manner by calculating $`g(\theta )`$ for our crystals, where $``$ denotes an average around the surface of the crystal. $`\theta `$ was calculated from a digitized optical image of the crystal. The inset to Fig. 1 shows $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab}^c(T)\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab}^{a,b}(T)`$ at 1.4 K as a function of $`g(\theta )`$. The linear fit shows that the correlation is good and the small intercept at $`g(\theta )`$=0 indicates that there is not a significant effect of microscopic surface roughness below our optical resolution.

Next we turn to the field dependence of $`\lambda `$. We have investigated this in two ways; either sweeping the temperature at fixed field or sweeping the field at fixed temperature. The results of the temperature sweeps at fixed field are shown in Fig. 2. A constant has been added to the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab}^c(T)`$ data in finite field so that they overlap with the zero field data at high temperature. By plotting the data in this way it can clearly be seen that an applied field suppresses the low temperature upturn in $`\lambda (T)`$. The good collapse of the data for $`T>10`$ K implies that the field dependence of $`\lambda `$ \[$`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda (H)`$\], above 10 K is temperature independent. For each run the sample was cooled in zero field (ZFC) and then the field was applied at 1.4 K. The temperature was then cycled up to 30 K several times to check for drift and any hysteresis. For fields $``$ 10 mT no hysteresis was seen and a zero field run following the finite field sweep overlap the virgin zero field curve exactly. We therefore conclude that for $`\mu _0H10`$ mT no vortices leak into the sample and we are in a reversible Meissner state. It can be seen that a field of $`10`$ mT is sufficient to suppress the upturn. For fields higher than $``$ 15 mT hysteresis was observed in the first $`T`$ sweep after which the data became reversible. This hysteresis is presumably caused by flux initially leaking into the sample but becoming pinned away from the edges after the temperature cycle. Data were also taken where the sample was cooled through $`T_c`$ to low temperature with the field applied (denoted FC, inset Fig. 2). The effect of field in this case was much reduced (by approximately a factor of 4). This is expected because of the more homogenous flux profile and thus reduced surface field in this case.

The effect of a dc magnetic field on the ABS contribution can be understood as originating from a Doppler shift $`dE`$ in the quasiparticle energy spectrum, where $`dE=e\stackrel{}{v}_f\stackrel{}{A}`$ ($`\stackrel{}{A}`$ is the vector potential). The effect of this shift on the ABS peaks has been observed directly in tunneling measurements . Substituting $`N(E)=\delta (E+e\stackrel{}{v}_f\stackrel{}{A})`$ into Eq. (1) gives

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda (T,H)}{\lambda (0)}=\frac{\beta }{4T}\mathrm{cosh}^2\left[\frac{\mu _0e\lambda \stackrel{}{H}\stackrel{}{v_f}}{2k_BT}\right]$$
(2)
showing that the $`1/T`$ divergence of $`\lambda `$ is suppressed when the applied field exceeds the temperature dependent field scale $`\stackrel{~}{H}=k_BT/(\mu _0ev_f\lambda )=H_0T/T_c`$, where $`H_0`$ is of order the thermodynamic critical field $`\mu _0H_c=\mathrm{\Phi }_0/\lambda \xi `$. A more exact formula for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda (H)`$, which includes the necessary averaging over all quasiparticle trajectories has been given in Ref. . Numerically, the result does not differ significantly from Eq. (2) except in the effective value of $`\stackrel{~}{H}`$. There is also a contribution from the shift of the non-singular part of the quasiparticle spectrum but this is considerably weaker \[$`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda /\lambda (0)H/H_0`$\] .

To make a detailed comparison to the data we first note that as the sample has a large aspect ratio, the effective surface field will be significantly enhanced above the applied field. Also, we expect that the field will also vary somewhat across the thickness of the crystal, achieving its maximum value near the top faces. We estimate an average ‘demagnetizing’ factor $`\eta _{av}=1/(1N_{av})`$ by comparing the total frequency shifts when we extract the sample out of the coil in the $`Ha,b`$ and $`Hc`$ geometries. For sample D, $`\eta _{av}=11.7`$.

The results of field sweeps at fixed temperature are shown in Fig. 3. At 1.34 K a very strong decrease in $`\lambda `$ with field is observed. Above 10K, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda (H)`$ becomes positive and, to a good approximation, temperature independent. For samples which do not show a strong upturn in $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab}^c(T)`$ (e.g., sample A) this behavior persists down to 1.3 K . We conclude therefore, that this behavior is a response of the bulk supercurrents. The response bears some resemblance to the prediction of Yip and Sauls for the non-linear Meissner effect . However, the fact that it is largely temperature independent is in serious disagreement with the theory. This effect is nevertheless small in comparison to the total response at low temperature for samples C and D. The lower curve in Fig. 3 shows $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda `$(H,T=1.35 K) with the temperature independent contribution subtracted along with a fit to Eq. (2). It can be seen that the agreement is excellent, with $`\mu _0\stackrel{~}{H}=1.9`$ mT. When allowance is made for the field enhancement $`\mu _0\stackrel{~}{H}_{eff}22.2`$ mT, implying $`v_f=0.4\times 10^5`$ms-1. A fit to the Barash formula  gives a smaller value of $`\mu _0\stackrel{~}{H}=0.86`$ mT and a larger value of $`v_f=0.86\times 10^5`$ms-1. At higher $`T`$ we find that $`\stackrel{~}{H}`$ increases but not as strongly as would be expected from Eq. (2). Qualitatively, this behavior was predicted by Barash et al. who showed that $`\stackrel{~}{H}`$ tends to a constant as $`TT^{}`$. Thus at our lowest temperature $`\stackrel{~}{H}`$ may be larger than it would be in the pure limit and the above analysis underestimates the intrinsic value of $`v_f`$. With $`T^{}=0.8\pm 0.4`$ K the Barash formula gives $`v_f=1.2\pm 0.2\times 10^5`$ms-1.

It is worth discussing briefly other processes which could effect the low temperature behavior of $`\lambda `$. Small amounts of unitary scatters , and non-local effects  can both cause $`\lambda (T)T^2`$ at low temperature, but do not cause an upturn. In some high $`T_c`$ cuprates a $`1/T`$ term in $`\lambda (T)`$ has been linked to the paramagnetic ions  or amorphous surface layers . It is highly unlikely that such contributions would be present in clean single crystals of YBCO and in any case this effect would not depend on the orientation of the exposed surface or the field orientation in the manner observed here. Also the effect of field on such impurities would be much weaker than we have observed (e.g., $`k_BT/g\mu _B1`$ telsa, with $`g`$=2 and $`T`$=1.4 K).

Measurements of BSCCO crystals show that similar effects occur in other cuprates. In Fig. 4 we show $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab}^c`$ for a sample of BSCCO in fields up to 97.8 mT. In zero field an upturn is clearly visible below $``$ 1 K and again the application of field suppresses this upturn. Because of the very strong anisotropy of BSCCO it is not possible to measure $`\lambda _{ab}(T)`$ in the $`Ha,b`$ configuration, although the absence of the upturn in this geometry precludes paramagnetic impurities. The very weak pinning in BSCCO also precludes ZFC measurements, as here we find irreversible behavior even in low fields. A larger field is required to suppress the upturn in this sample however this is largely explained by the smaller effect of a field in the FC case. This upturn has only been seen in this very clean sample of BSCCO. The smaller magnitude of the upturn \[or the lower temperature of the minimum in $`\lambda (T)`$\] is explained by the surfaces of this crystal being close to /.

In conclusion, by studying the effect of the orientation of the applied field to the crystal axes on the in-plane penetration depth, we have shown strong evidence for the existence of current carrying Andreev bound states on non  surfaces of YBCO. In clean crystal the states are only weakly broadened. The response is shown to be highly non linear in the Meissner phase, with a small field completely suppressing the anomaly. This behavior is consistent with a shift of the ABS peak in the quasiparticle density of states caused by the screening currents. Similar effects have been observed in BSCCO indicating that these effects are universal in cuprates and possibly all non-conventional superconductors. Besides being of intrinsic interest we also note that these effects must be taken into account in measurements of the surface properties of all non-conventional superconductors which have surfaces where Andreev bound states can form.

We acknowledge useful discussions with M. Aprili, D. Lee, J.R. Cooper and L.H. Greene. Work at Urbana was supported through State of Illinois - ICR funds.