Search results for "Superconductors"
showing 10 items of 51 documents
Anomalous current in diffusive ferromagnetic Josephson junctions
2017
We demonstrate that in diffusive superconductor/ferromagnet/superconductor (S/F/S) junctions a finite, anomalous Josephson current can flow even at zero phase difference between the S electrodes. The conditions for the observation of this effect are noncoplanar magnetization distribution and a broken magnetization inversion symmetry of the superconducting current. The latter symmetry is intrinsic for the widely used quasiclassical approximation and prevented previous works based on this approximation from obtaining the Josephson anomalous current. We show that this symmetry can be removed by introducing spin-dependent boundary conditions for the quasiclassical equations at the superconducti…
Domain wall induced modulation of low field H-T phase diagram in patterned superconductor-ferromagnet stripes
2019
We present a systematic study of the magnetic domain wall induced modulation of superconducting transition temperature (Tc) in Nb/Ni bilayer stripes. By varying the thickness of the Ni layer from 20 nm to 100 nm we have been able to measure the low field Tc-H phase diagram spanning the Neel domain wall and Bloch domain wall range of thicknesses. Micromagnetic simulations and magnetic force microscopy measurements confirmed a stronger out-of-plane stray field in the Bloch domain walls compared to the Neel walls. A suppression in Tc was observed in the magnetization reversal region of the Ni film, the magnitude of which followed linearly to the strength of the out-of-plane stray field due to …
Electron-phonon heat transport and electronic thermal conductivity in heavily doped silicon-on-insulator film
2003
Electron–phonon interaction and electronic thermal conductivity have been investigated in heavily doped silicon at subKelvin temperatures. The heat flow between electron and phonon systems is found to be proportional to T6. Utilization of a superconductor–semiconductor–superconductor thermometer enables a precise measurement of electron and substrate temperatures. The electronic thermal conductivity is consistent with the Wiedemann–Franz law. Peer reviewed
Electron refrigeration in hybrid structures with spin-split superconductors
2017
Electron tunneling between superconductors and normal metals has been used for an efficient refrigeration of electrons in the latter. Such cooling is a nonlinear effect and usually requires a large voltage. Here we study the electron cooling in heterostructures based on superconductors with a spin-splitting field coupled to normal metals via spin-filtering barriers. The cooling power shows a linear term in the applied voltage. This improves the coefficient of performance of electron refrigeration in the normal metal by shifting its optimum cooling to lower voltage, and also allows for cooling the spin-split superconductor by reverting the sign of the voltage. We also show how tunnel couplin…
Energy of dendritic avalanches in thin-film superconductors
2018
A method for calculating stored magnetic energy in a thin superconducting film based on quantitative magneto-optical imaging is developed. Energy and magnetic moment are determined with these calculations for full hysteresis loops in a thin film of the superconductor NbN. Huge losses in energy are observed when dendritic avalanches occur. Magnetic energy, magnetic moment, sheet current and magnetic flux distributions, all extracted from the same calibrated magneto-optical images, are analyzed and discussed. Dissipated energy and the loss in moment when dendritic avalanches occur are related to each other. Calculating these losses for specific spatially-resolved flux avalanches is a great ad…
3D superconducting hollow nanowires with tailored diameters grown by focused He+ beam direct writing
2020
Currently, the patterning of innovative three-dimensional (3D) nano-objects is required for the development of future advanced electronic components. Helium ion microscopy in combination with a precursor gas can be used for direct writing of three-dimensional nanostructures with a precise control of their geometry, and a significantly higher aspect ratio than other additive manufacturing technologies. We report here on the deposition of 3D hollow tungsten carbide nanowires with tailored diameters by tuning two key growth parameters, namely current and dose of the ion beam. Our results show the control of geometry in 3D hollow nanowires, with outer and inner diameters ranging from 36 to 142 …
Existence of zero-energy impurity states in different classes of topological insulators and superconductors and their relation to topological phase t…
2015
We consider the effects of impurities on topological insulators and superconductors. We start by identifying the general conditions under which the eigenenergies of an arbitrary Hamiltonian H belonging to one of the Altland-Zirnbauer symmetry classes undergo a robust zero energy crossing as a function of an external parameter which can be, for example, the impurity strength. We define a generalized root of \det H, and use it to predict or rule out robust zero-energy crossings in all symmetry classes. We complement this result with an analysis based on almost degenerate perturbation theory, which allows a derivation of the asymptotic low-energy behavior of the ensemble averaged density of st…
Properties of dirty two-band superconductors with repulsive interband interaction: Normal modes, length scales, vortices, and magnetic response
2018
Disorder in two-band superconductors with repulsive interband interaction induces a frustrated competition between the phase-locking preferences of the various potential and kinetic terms. This frustrated interaction can result in the formation of an $s+is$ superconducting state, that breaks the time-reversal symmetry. In this paper we study the normal modes and their associated coherence lengths in such materials. We especially focus on the consequences of the soft modes stemming from the frustration and time-reversal-symmetry breakdown. We find that two-bands superconductors with such impurity-induced frustrated interactions display a rich spectrum of physical properties that are absent i…
Thermoelectric radiation detector based on a superconductor-ferromagnet junction : Calorimetric regime
2018
We study the use of a thermoelectric junction as a thermal radiation detector in the calorimetric regime, where single radiation bursts can be separated in time domain. We focus especially on the case of a large thermoelectric figure of merit $ZT$ affecting significantly for example the relevant thermal time scales. This work is motivated by the use of hybrid superconductor/ferromagnet systems in creating an unprecedentedly high low-temperature $ZT$ even exceeding unity. Besides constructing a very general noise model which takes into account cross correlations between charge and heat noise, we show how the detector signal can be efficiently multiplexed by the use of resonant LC circuits gi…
Measuring charge based quantum bits by a superconducting single-electron transistor
2002
Single-electron transistors have been proposed to be used as a read-out device for Cooper pair charge qubits. Here we show that a coupled superconducting transistor at a threshold voltage is much more effective in measuring the state of a qubit than a normal-metal transistor at the same voltage range. The effect of the superconducting gap is to completely block the current through the transistor when the qubit is in the logical state 1, compared to the mere diminishment of the current in the normal-metal case. The time evolution of the system is solved when the measuring device is driven out of equilibrium and the setting is analysed numerically for parameters accessible by lithographic alu…