Signature of Cooper pairs in the non-superconducting phases of amorphous superconducting tantalum films

2014/12/24 by Yize Stephanie Li
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Amorphous solid #Chemistry #Condensed matter physics #Cooper pair #Crystallography #Materials science #Metallurgy #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Signature (topology) #Superconductivity #Tantalum #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.str-el #cond-mat.supr-con

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0953-2048/28/2/025002

published as Supercond. Sci. Technol. 28, 025002 (2015)

openalex publication_date 2014/12/24 · arxiv created 2015/02/11 · arxiv updated 2015/02/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We have studied the magnetic field or disorder induced insulating and metallic phases in amorphous Ta superconducting thin films. The evolution of the nonlinear transport in the insulating phase exhibits a non-monotonic behavior as the magnetic field is increased. We suggest that this observation could be evidence of the presence of localized Cooper pairs in the insulating phase. As the metallic phase intervenes the superconducting and insulating states in Ta films, this result further reveals that Cooper pairs also exist in the metallic ground state.

Citations

• Jumps in Current-Voltage Characteristics in Disordered Films
• Anomalous parallel-field negative magnetoresistance in ultrathin films near the superconductor-insulator transition
• Superconductivity-Related Insulating Behavior
• Observation of the parallel-magnetic-field-induced superconductor-insulator transition in thin amorphous InO films
• Quantum Metallicity on the High-Field Side of the Superconductor-Insulator Transition
• Nature of the superconductor–insulator transition in disordered superconductors