2010/06/02 by Peng Li, Li, Peng, Phillip M. Wu +9
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Metal and Thin Film Mechanics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Silicon Carbide Semiconductor Technologies #Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1006.0420
openalex publication_date 2010/06/02 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
An Aluminum nanowire switches from superconducting to normal as the current is increased in an upsweep. The switching current (Is) averaged over upsweeps approximately follows the depairing critical current (Ic) but falls below it. Fluctuations in Is exhibit three distinct regions of behaviors and are non-monotonic in temperature: saturation well below the critical temperature Tc, an increase as T2/3 at intermediate temperatures, and a rapid decrease close to Tc. Heat dissipation analysis indicates that a single phase slip is able to trigger switching at low and intermediate temperatures, whereby the T2/3 dependence arises from the thermal activation of a phase slip, while saturation at low temperatures provides striking evidence that the phase slips by macroscopic quantum tunneling.