Search results for " superconductivity"
showing 10 items of 319 documents
Effects of Weak Links in the Nonlinear Microwave Response of MgB2 Superconductor
2006
We report experimental results of second-harmonic (SH) response at microwave frequency in several ceramic MgB2 samples, prepared by different methods. The SH signal has been investigated as a function of the temperature and DC magnetic field. The investigation has been carried out at low magnetic fields, where nonlinear processes arising from motion of Abrikosov fluxons are ineffective. We show that the low-temperature SH emission is ascribable to processes involving weak links. Comparison among the peculiarities of the SH signal radiated by the different samples shows that the presence of weak links strongly depends on the sample preparation method, as well as the purity and morphology of …
Phase-dependent microwave response of a graphene Josephson junction
2021
Gate-tunable Josephson junctions embedded in a microwave environment provide a promising platform to in situ engineer and optimize novel superconducting quantum circuits. The key quantity for the circuit design is the phase-dependent complex admittance of the junction, which can be probed by sensing a radio frequency SQUID with a tank circuit. Here, we investigate a graphene-based Josephson junction as a prototype gate-tunable element enclosed in a SQUID loop that is inductively coupled to a superconducting resonator operating at 3 GHz. With a concise circuit model that describes the dispersive and dissipative response of the coupled system, we extract the phase-dependent junction admittanc…
Dimensionality of the Superconductivity in the Transition Metal Pnictide WP
2020
We report theoretical and experimental results on the transition metal pnictide WP. The theoretical outcomes based on tight-binding calculations and density functional theory indicate that WP is a three-dimensional superconductor with an anisotropic electronic structure and nonsymmorphic symmetries. On the other hand, magnetoresistance experimental data and the analysis of superconducting fluctuations of the conductivity in external magnetic field indicate a weakly anisotropic three-dimensional superconducting phase.
Evolution of topological superconductivity by orbital-selective confinement in oxide nanowires
2019
We determine the optimal conditions to achieve topological superconducting phases having spin-singlet pairing for a planar nanowire with finite lateral width in the presence of an in-plane external magnetic field. We employ a microscopic description that is based on a three-band electronic model including both the atomic spin-orbit coupling and the inversion asymmetric potential at the interface between oxide band-gap insulators. We consider amplitudes of the pairing gap, spin-orbit interactions and electronic parameters that are directly applicable to nanowires of LaAlO$_3$-SrTiO$_3$. The lateral confinement introduces a splitting of the $d$-orbitals that alters the orbital energy hierarch…
Local tunneling study of three-dimensional order parameter in the pi band of Al-doped MgB2 single crystals
2007
We have performed local tunneling spectroscopy on high quality Mg$_{1-x}$Al$_x$B$_2$ single crystals by means of Variable Temperature Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy (STS) in magnetic field up to 3 Tesla. Single gap conductance spectra due to c-axis tunneling were extensively measured, probing different amplitudes of the three-dimensional $\Delta_\pi$ as a function of Al content. Temperature and magnetic field dependences of the conductance spectra were studied in S-I-N configuration: the effect of the doping resulted in a monotonous reduction of the locally measured $T_C$ down to 24K for x=0.2. On the other hand, we have found that the gap amplitude shows a maximum value $\Delta_\pi= 2.3$ …
Superconducting properties of Nb thin films deposited on porous silicon templates
2008
Porous silicon, obtained by electrochemical etching, has been used as a substrate for the growth of nanoperforated Nb thin films. The films, deposited by UHV magnetron sputtering on the porous Si substrates, inherited their structure made of holes of 5 or 10 nm diameter and of 10 to 40 nm spacing, which provide an artificial pinning structure. The superconducting properties were investigated by transport measurements performed in the presence of magnetic field for different film thickness and substrates with different interpore spacing. Perpendicular upper critical fields measurements present peculiar features such as a change in the H_c2(T) curvature and oscillations in the field dependenc…
Josephson Traveling Wave Parametric Amplifiers as Non-Classical Light Source for Microwave Quantum Illumination
2021
Abstract Detection of low-reflectivity objects can be enriched via the so-called quantum illumination procedure. In order that this quantum procedure outperforms classical detection protocols, entangled states of microwave radiation are initially required. In this paper, we discuss the role of Josephson Traveling Wave Parametric Amplifiers (JTWPAs), based on circuit-QED components, as suitable sources of a two-mode squeezed vacuum state, a special signal-idler entangled state. The obtained wide bandwidth makes the JTWPA an ideal candidate for generating quantum radiation in quantum metrology and information processing applications.
Effect of disorder on Majorana localization in topological superconductors: a quasiclassical approach
2020
Two-dimensional (2D) topological superconductors (TS) host chiral Majorana modes (MMs) localized at the boundaries. In this work, we study the effect of disorder on the localization length of MMs in two-dimensional spin-orbit (SO) coupled superconductors within quasiclassical approximation. We find nonmonotonic behavior of the Majorana localization length as a function of disorder strength. At weak disorder, the Majorana localization length decreases with an increasing disorder strength. Decreasing the disorder scattering time below a crossover value ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{c}$, the Majorana localization length starts to increase. The crossover scattering time depends on the relative magnitud…
Macroscopic persistent currents in YBa2Cu3O7
1988
Persistent currents in polycrystalline YBa2Cu3O7 rings have been investigated by measuring the spatial distribution of the magnetic flux trapped in field-cooled samples. The results unambiguously show that macroscopic persistent ring currents exist. The critical current density depends very sensitively on the sample quality, reachingj c ≈250 A/cm2 at 77 K for our best samples.
Anomalous intensity of the 335 cm−1 phonon in YBa2Cu3O7−δ
1991
Abstract We report results on Raman scattering for the intensity of the 335 cm −1 phonon of A g (pseudo B 1g ) symmetry in thin YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7−δ films on MgO and LaAlO 3 substrates. The intensity of this phonon shows a pronounced increase below 100 K and saturates at low temperatures. We also observe an additional intensity peaking at temperatures close to the superconducting transition T C . This may indicate a structural phase transition in the vicinity of T C .