Quantum Phase Slips in Superconducting Nanowires

2001/09/28 by C. N. Lau, Chun Ning Lau, Nina Marković +6 · 1 voice · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Superconductivity in MgB2 and Alloys #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.supr-con

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.87.217003

arxiv published 2001/09/28 · arxiv updated 2001/09/28 · openalex publication_date 2001/11/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We have measured the resistance vs temperature of more than 20 superconducting nanowires with nominal widths ranging from 10 to 22 nm and lengths from 100 nm to 1 microm. With decreasing cross-sectional areas, the wires display increasingly broad resistive transitions. The data are in very good agreement with a model that includes both thermally activated phase slips close to T(c) and quantum phase slips (QPS) at low temperatures, but disagree with an earlier model based on a critical value of R(N)/R(q). Our measurements provide strong evidence for QPS in thin superconducting wires.

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Discussions

• Flux/phase tunneling in SQUIDs. We escape from the zero voltage state and resonant tunneling between fluxoid wells in dc/rf SQUID potentials. Theres a clear crossover from thermal activation to MQT at [stackexchange, 4 points]

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