Weber blockade in superconducting nanowires

Abstract

We have measured the critical current as a function of magnetic field in short and narrow superconducting aluminum nanowires. In the range of magnetic fields in which vortices can enter a nanowire in a single row, we find regular oscillations of the critical current as a function of magnetic field. The oscillations are found to correspond to adding a single vortex to the nanowire, with the number of vortices on the nanowire staying constant within each period of the oscillation. This effect can be thought of as a Weber blockade, and the nanowires act as quantum dots for vortices, analogous to the Coulomb blockade for electrons in quantum dots.

5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (9)

• Nanowire Acting as a Superconducting Quantum Interference Device
• Local current injection into mesoscopic superconductors for the manipulation of quantum states
• Onset of Vortices in Thin Superconducting Strips and Wires
• Vortex-induced negative magnetoresistance and peak effect in narrow superconducting films
• Vortex lattices in strong type-II superconducting two-dimensional strips
• Weber blockade theory of magnetoresistance oscillations in superconducting strips
• Superconductor-Insulator Magneto-Oscillations in Superconducting Strips
• Critical fields for vortex expulsion from narrow superconducting strips
• Alternating Superconductor--Insulator Transport Characteristics in a Quantum Vortex Chain

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• Quantum thermodynamics with a single superconducting vortex
• Visualizing the elongated vortices in $\gamma$-Ga nanostrips
• Probing confined vortices with a superconducting nanobridge
• Vortex crossing, trapping and pinning in superconducting nanowires of a NbSe${}_2$ two-dimensional crystal
• Cooper-pair splitters as circuit elements for realizing topological superconductors