Effect of Coulomb interactions on the disorder-driven superconductor- insulator transition

We have studied the evolution of the superconducting energy gap of indium oxide through the disorder-driven superconductor-to-insulator transition (SIT) using two distinct experimental methods that allow us to test the influence of metallic screening: tunneling spectroscopy in which a metallic electrode is adjacent to the studied sample, thus screening Coulomb interactions, and contactless terahertz spectroscopy which probes the unperturbed sample. The tunneling measurements reveal a similar superconducting gap on both sides of the SIT and at temperatures above and below Tc. Terahertz measurements detect the superconducting gap below but not above the critical temperature nor in the insulating state. This difference between the two spectroscopy methods is attributed to the effect of Coulomb interactions which are screened in the tunneling experiments. Our study reveals the importance of Coulomb interactions on the energy gap of disordered superconductors.