Superconducting insulators and localization of Cooper pairs
arXiv:2107.01567 · doi:10.1038/s42005-021-00648-7
Abstract
Rapid miniaturization of electronic devices and circuits demands profound understanding of fluctuation phenomena at the nanoscale. Superconducting nanowires -- serving as important building blocks for such devices -- may seriously suffer from fluctuations which tend to destroy long-range order and suppress superconductivity. In particular, quantum phase slips (QPS) proliferating at low temperatures may turn a quasi-one-dimensional superconductor into a resistor or an insulator. Here, we introduce a physical concept of QPS-controlled localization of Cooper pairs that may occur even in uniform nanowires without any dielectric barriers being a fundamental manifestation of the flux-charge duality in superconductors. We demonstrate -- both experimentally and theoretically -- that deep in the "insulating" state such nanowires actually exhibit non-trivial superposition of superconductivity and weak Coulomb blockade of Cooper pairs generated by quantum tunneling of magnetic fluxons across the wire.
arXiv comment7+2 pages,5+2 figures
References in corpus (27)
- Quantum suppression of superconductivity in ultrathin nanowires
- Quantum Phase Transitions and Vortex Dynamics in Superconducting Networks
- Quantum Phase Slips in Superconducting Nanowires
- Superconductivity in one dimension
- Reply to the Comment on 'Quantum Phase Slips and Transport in Ultra-Thin Superconducting Wires'
- Coherent quantum phase slip
- Quantum Tunneling of the Order Parameter in Superconducting Nanowires
- Phase-slip flux qubits
- Coulomb Blockade without Tunnel Junctions
- Coulomb Interaction and Quantum Transport through a Coherent Scatterer
- Quantum fluctuations in ultranarrow superconducting nanowires
- Quantum phase slip interference device based on superconducting nanowire
- Evidence of quantum phase slip effect in titanium nanowires
- Coherent Flux Tunneling Through NbN Nanowires
- Coulomb blockade and Bloch oscillations in superconducting Ti nanowires
- Determination of the Superconductor-Insulator Phase Diagram for One-Dimensional Wires
- Quantum phase slip phenomenon in ultra-narrow superconducting nanorings
- Thermal fluctuations in superconducting nanowires
- Persistent currents in quantum phase slip rings
- Quantum Phase Slip Noise
- Junctionless Cooper pair transistor
- Quantum phase slip phenomenon in superconducting nanowires with low-Ohmic environment
- Quantum phase fluctuations and density of states in superconducting nanowires
- Quasi-1-Dimensional Superconductivity in Highly Disordered NbN Nanowires
- Quantum fluctuations and phase coherence in superconducting nanowires
- Full counting statistics of quantum phase slips
- Topology controlled phase coherence and quantum fluctuations in superconducting nanowires