Field-induced superconductor to insulator transition in Josephson-junction ladders
Abstract
The superconductor to insulator transition is studied in a self-charging model for a ladder of Josephson-junctions in presence of an external magnetic field. Path integral Monte Carlo simulations of the equivalent (1+1)-dimensional classical model are used to study the phase diagram and critical behavior. In addition to a superconducting (vortex-free) phase, a vortex phase can also occur for increasing magnetic field and small charging energy. It is found that an intervening insulating phase separates the superconducting from the vortex phases. Surprisingly, a finite-size scaling analysis shows that the field-induced superconducting to insulator transition is in the KT universality class even tough the external field breaks time-reversal symmetry.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0509800,
title = {Field-induced superconductor to insulator transition in Josephson-junction ladders},
author = {Enzo Granato},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0509800},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
5 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. B