Search results for " superconductivity"
showing 10 items of 319 documents
New state of matter: heavy-fermion systems, quantum spin liquids, quasicrystals, cold gases, and high temperature superconductors
2018
We report on a new state of matter manifested by strongly correlated Fermi systems including various heavy-fermion (HF) metals, two-dimensional quantum liquids such as $\rm ^3He$ films, certain quasicrystals, and systems behaving as quantum spin liquids. Generically, these systems can be viewed as HF systems or HF compounds, in that they exhibit typical behavior of HF metals. At zero temperature, such systems can experience a so-called fermion-condensation quantum phase transition (FCQPT). Combining analytical considerations with arguments based entirely on experimental grounds we argue and demonstrate that the class of HF systems is characterized by universal scaling behavior of their ther…
Resistive state of quasi-one-dimensional superconductors: Fluctuations vs. sample inhomogeneity
2007
The shape of experimentally observed R(T) transition of thin superconducting wires is analyzed. Broadening of the transition in quasi-1-dimensional superconducting channels is typically associated with phase slip mechanism provided by thermal or quantum fluctuations. It is shown that consideration of inevitable geometrical inhomogeneity and finite dimensions of real samples studied in experiments is of primary importance for interpretation of results. The analysis is based on experimental fact that for many superconducting materials the critical temperature is a function of characteristic dimension of a low-dimensional system: film thickness or wire cross section
Transition to ballistic regime for heat transport in helium II
2014
The size-dependent and flux-dependent effective thermal conductivity of narrow capillaries filled with superfluid helium is analyzed from a thermodynamic continuum perspective. The classical Landau evaluation of the effective thermal conductivity of quiescent superfluid, or the Gorter-Mellinck regime of turbulent superfluids, are extended to describe the transition to ballistic regime in narrow channels wherein the radius $R$ is comparable to (or smaller than) the phonon mean-free path $\ell$ in superfluid helium. To do so we start from an extended equation for the heat flux incorporating non-local terms, and take into consideration a heat slip flow along the walls of the tube. This leads f…
Competition between intrinsic and extrinsic effects in the quenching of the superconducting state in FeSeTe thin films
2015
We report the first experimental observation of the quenching of the superconducting state in current-voltage characteristics of an iron-based superconductor, namely, in FeSeTe thin films. Based on available theoretical models, our analysis suggests the presence of an intrinsic flux-flow electronic instability along with non-negligible extrinsic thermal effects. The coexistence and competition of these two mechanisms classify the observed instability as halfway between those of low-temperature and of high-temperature superconductors, where thermal effects are respectively largely negligible or predominant.
Phonon Cooling of Nanomechanical Beams with Tunnel Junctions
2009
We demonstrate electronic cooling of 1D phonon modes in suspended nanowires for the first time, using normal-metal-insulator-superconductor (N-I-S) tunnel junctions. Simultaneous cooling of both electrons and phonons to a common temperature was achieved. In comparison with nonsuspended devices, better cooling performance is achieved in the whole operating range of bath temperatures between 0.1-0.7 K. The observed low-temperature thermal transport characteristics are consistent with scattering of ballistic phonons at the nanowire-bulk contact as being the mechanism limiting thermal transport. At the lowest bath temperature of the experiment approximately 100 mK, both phonons and electrons in…
Josephson-junction-based axion detection through resonant activation
2022
We discuss the resonant activation phenomenon on a Josephson junction due to the coupling of the Josephson system with axions. We show how such an effect can be exploited for axion detection. A nonmonotonic behavior, with a minimum, of the mean switching time from the superconducting to the resistive state versus the ratio of the axion energy and the Josephson plasma energy is found. We demonstrate how variations in switching times make it possible to detect the presence of the axion field. An experimental protocol for observing axions through their coupling with a Josephson system is proposed.
Suppression of Penning discharges between the KATRIN spectrometers
2020
The KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino experiment (KATRIN) aims to determine the effective electron (anti)neutrino mass with a sensitivity of $0.2\textrm{ eV/c}^2$ (90$\%$ C.L.) by precisely measuring the endpoint region of the tritium $\beta$-decay spectrum. It uses a tandem of electrostatic spectrometers working as MAC-E (magnetic adiabatic collimation combined with an electrostatic) filters. In the space between the pre-spectrometer and the main spectrometer, an unavoidable Penning trap is created when the superconducting magnet between the two spectrometers, biased at their respective nominal potentials, is energized. The electrons accumulated in this trap can lead to discharges, which create a…
Disordered hyperuniformity in superconducting vortex lattices
2020
Particles occupying sites of a random lattice present density fluctuations at all length scales. It has been proposed that increasing interparticle interactions reduces long range density fluctuations, deviating from random behaviour. This leads to power laws in the structure factor and the number variance that can be used to characterize deviations from randomness which eventually lead to disordered hyperuniformity. It is not yet fully clear how to link density fluctuations with interactions in a disordered hyperuniform system. Interactions between superconducting vortices are very sensitive to vortex pinning, to the crystal structure of the superconductor and to the value of the magnetic …
Thermal, electric and spin transport in superconductor/ferromagnetic-insulator structures
2019
A ferromagnetic insulator (FI) attached to a conventional superconductor (S) changes drastically the properties of the latter. Specifically, the exchange field at the FI/S interface leads to a splitting of the superconducting density of states. If S is a superconducting film, thinner than the superconducting coherence length, the modification of the density of states occurs over the whole sample. The co-existence of the exchange splitting and superconducting correlations in S/FI structures leads to striking transport phenomena that are of interest for applications in thermoelectricity, superconducting spintronics and radiation sensors. Here we review the most recent progress in understandin…
Resistive state triggered by vortex entry in YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7−δ nanostructures
2014
We have realized YBa2Cu3O7-delta nanowires and nano Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (nanoSQUID). The measured temperature dependence of the wire resistances below the superconducting transition temperature has been analyzed using a thermally activated vortex entry model valid for wires wider than the superconducting coherence length. The extracted zero temperature values of the London penetration depth, lambda(0) similar or equal to 270 +/- 15 nm, are in good agreement with the value obtained from critical current modulations as a function of an externally applied magnetic field in a nanoSQUID implementing two nanowires.