English

Resistance of 2D superconducting films

Superconductivity 2021-10-04 v1 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Abstract

We consider the problem of finite resistance RR in superconducting films with geometry of a strip of width WW near zero temperature. The resistance is generated by vortex configurations of the phase field. In the first type of process, quantum phase slip, the vortex worldline in 2+1 dimensional space-time is space-like (i.e., the superconducting phase winds in time and space). In the second type, vortex tunneling, the worldline is time-like (i.e., the phase winds in the two spatial directions) and connects opposite edges of the film. For moderately disordered samples, processes of second type favor a train of vortices, each of which tunnels only across a fraction of the sample. Optimization with respect to the number of vortices yields a tunneling distance of the order of the coherence length ξ\xi, and the train of vortices becomes equivalent to a quantum phase slip. Based on this theory, we find the resistance lnRgW/ξ\ln R \sim -g W/\xi, where gg is the dimensionless normal-state conductance. Incorporation of quantum fluctuations indicates a quantum phase transition to an insulating state for g1g \lesssim 1.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2106.05980,
  title  = {Resistance of 2D superconducting films},
  author = {E. J. König and I. V. Protopopov and A. Levchenko and I. V. Gornyi and A. D. Mirlin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.05980},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

5 pages + supplement