Superconductor-to-normal transition in finite nanowires

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the interplay of quantum fluctuations and dissipation in uniform superconducting nanowires. We consider a phenomenological model with superconducting and normal components, and a finite equilibration rate between these two-fluids. We find that phase-slip dipoles proliferate in the wire, and decouple the two-fluids within its bulk. This implies that the the normal fluid only couples to the superconductor fluid through the leads at the edges of the wire, and the {\it local} dissipation is unimportant. Therefore, while long wires have a superconductor-metal transition tuned by local properties of the superconducting fluid, short wires have a transition when the {\it total} resistance is $R_{total}=R_Q=h/4e^2$.

4+ pages

References in corpus (6)

• Quantum fluctuations in ultranarrow superconducting nanowires
• Universal conductance of nanowires near the superconductor-metal quantum transition
• Determination of the Superconductor-Insulator Phase Diagram for One-Dimensional Wires
• Dichotomy in short superconducting nanowires: thermal phase slippage vs. Coulomb blockade
• Sharp Superconductor-Insulator Transition in Short Wires
• The Effect of Quantum Phase Slip Interactions on the Transport of Thin Superconducting Wires

Cited by in corpus (8)

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• On the origin of critical temperature enhancement in atomically-thin superconductors
• Coulomb Blockade due to Quantum Phase-Slips Illustrated with Devices
• Superconductor-insulator transition in nanowires and nanowire arrays
• Majorana fermions in an out-of-equilibrium topological superconducting wire: an exact microscopic transport analysis of a p-wave open chain coupled to normal leads
• Flux-charge duality and topological quantum phase fluctuations in quasi-one-dimensional superconductors
• Modeling and simulations of quantum phase slips in ultrathin superconducting wires
• Fabrication of sub-15nm aluminum wires by controlled etching