2007/09/25 by Nayana Shah, David Pekker, Paul M. Goldbart · 1 citation
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Condensed matter physics #Electrical engineering #Formalism (music) #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #Materials science #Mechanics #Nanotechnology #Nanowire #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Resistive touchscreen #Resistor #Slip (aerodynamics) #Statistical physics #Stochastic dynamics #Superconductivity #Thermodynamics #Voltage #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.101.207001
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 207001 (2008) · 5 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2007/09/25 · openalex publication_date 2008/11/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study the stochastic dynamics of superconductive-resistive switching in hysteretic current-biased superconducting nanowires undergoing phase-slip fluctuations. We evaluate the mean switching time using the master-equation formalism, and hence obtain the distribution of switching currents. We find that as the temperature is reduced this distribution initially broadens; only at lower temperatures does it show the narrowing with cooling naively expected for phase slips that are thermally activated. We also find that although several phase-slip events are generally necessary to induce switching, there is an experimentally accessible regime of temperatures and currents for which just one single phase-slip event is sufficient to induce switching, via the local heating it causes.