2008/03/31 by Sergei Khlebnikov, S. Khlebnikov · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.78.014512
published as Phys. Rev. B 78, 014512 (2008) · 6 pages, 1 figure; published in Phys. Rev. B
openalex publication_date 2008/07/17 · arxiv created 2008/09/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In a short superconducting nanowire connected to bulk superconducting leads, quantum phase slips behave as a system of linearly (as opposed to logarithmically) interacting charges. This system maps onto quantum mechanics of a particle in a periodic potential. We show that, while the state with a high density of phase slips is not a true insulator (a consequence of Josephson tunneling between the leads), for a range of parameters it behaves as such down to unobservably small temperatures. We also show that quantum phase slips give rise to multiple branches (bands) in the energy-current relation and to an interband (``exciton'') mode.