Abstract
Superconducting properties of metallic nanowires may strongly depend on specific experimental conditions. Here we consider a setup where superconducting phase fluctuations are restricted at one point inside the wire and equilibrium supercurrent flows along the wire segment of an arbitrary length L. Low-temperature physics of this structure is essentially determined, on one hand, by smooth phase fluctuations and, on the other hand, by quantum phase slips. The zero temperature phase diagram is controlled by the wire cross section and consists of a truly superconducting phase and two different phases where superconductivity can be observed only at shorter length scales. One of the latter phases exhibits more robust short-scale superconductivity whereas another one demonstrates a power-law decay of the supercurrent with increasing L already at relatively short scales.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Zaikin, A.D., Golubev, D.S.: Dissipative Quantum Mechanics of Nanostructures: Electron Transport, Fluctuations and Interactions. Jenny Stanford Publishing, Singapore (2019)
Arutyunov, K. Y. u., Golubev, D.S., Zaikin, A.D.: Superconductivity in one dimension. Phys. Rep. 464, 1 (2008)
Larkin, A.I., Varlamov, A.A.: Theory of Fluctuations in Superconductors. Clarendon Press, Oxford (2005)
Golubev, D.S., Zaikin, A.D.: Thermally activated phase slips in superconducting nanowires. Phys. Rev. B 78, 144502 (2008)
Golubev, D.S., Zaikin, A.D.: Quantum tunneling of the order parameter in superconducting nanowires. Phys. Rev. B 64, 014504 (2001)
Bezryadin, A., Lau, C.N., Tinkham, M.: Quantum suppression of superconductivity in ultrathin nanowires. Nature 404, 971 (2000)
Lau, C.N., et al.: Quantum phase slips in superconducting nanowires. Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 217003 (2001)
Zgirski, M., et al.: Quantum fluctuations in ultranarrow supercooducting aluminum nanowires. Phys. Rev. B 77, 054508 (2008)
Mooij, J.E., Schön, G.: Propagating plasma mode in thin superconducting filaments. Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 114 (1985)
Radkevich, A., Semenov, A.G., Zaikin, A.D.: Quantum phase fluctuations and density of states in superconducting nanowires. Phys. Rev. B 96, 085435 (2017)
Arutyunov, K.Yu., et al.: Smearing of electron density of states in quasi-one-dimensional superconducting channels due to quantum phase fluctuations. J. Magn. Magn. Mat. 459, 356 (2018)
Zaikin, A.D., et al.: Quantum phase slips and transport in ultrathin superconducting wires. Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 1552 (1997)
Semenov, A.G., Zaikin, A.D.: Persistent currents in quantum phase slip rings. Phys. Rev. B 88, 054505 (2013)
Bobbert, P., et al.: Phase transitions in dissipative Josephson chains: Monte Carlo results and response functions. Phys. Rev. B 45, 2294 (1992)
Radkevich, A., Semenov, A.G., Zaikin, A.D.: Quantum fluctuations and phase coherence in superconducting nanowires. Phys. Rev. B 100, 014520 (2019)
Van Otterlo, A., et al.: Dynamics and effective actions of BCS superconductors. Eur. Phys. J. B 10, 131 (1999)
Kleinert, H.: Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation: successes, failure, and cure. EJTP 8, 57 (2011)
Schön, G., Zaikin, A.D.: Quantum coherent effects, phase transitions and the dissipative dynamics of ultra small tunnel junctions. Phys. Rep. 198, 237 (1990)
Hekking, F.W.J., Glazman, L.I.: Quantum fluctuations in the equilibrium state of a thin superconducting loop. Phys. Rev. B 55, 6551 (1997)
Funding
This work was supported in part by RFBR Grant No. 18-02-00586 for AGS and ADZ. AR acknowledges support by RFBR Grant No. 19-31-27001.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Radkevich, A., Semenov, A.G. & Zaikin, A.D. Topology-Controlled Phase Coherence and Quantum Fluctuations in Superconducting Nanowires. J Supercond Nov Magn 33, 2335–2339 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10948-019-05381-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10948-019-05381-5