Resistivity of Inhomogeneous Superconducting Wires

dc.creatorPai, G. Venketeswara
dc.creatorShimshoni, E.
dc.creatorAndrei, N.
dc.date2007-12-19
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T12:34:10Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T12:34:10Z
dc.descriptionWe study the contribution of quantum phase fluctuations in the superconducting order parameter to the low--temperature resistivity $ρ(T)$ of a dirty and inhomogeneous superconducting wire. In particular, we account for random spatial fluctuations of arbitrary size in the wire thickness. For a typical wire thickness above the critical value for superconductor--insulator transition, phase--slips processes can be treated perturbatively. We use a memory formalism approach, which underlines the role played by weak violation of conservation laws in the mechanism for generating finite resistivity. Our calculations yield an expression for $ρ(T)$ which exhibits a smooth crossover from a homogeneous to a ``granular'' limit upon increase of $T$, controlled by a ``granularity parameter'' $D$ characterizing the size of thickness fluctuations. For extremely small $D$, we recover the power--law dependence $ρ(T)\sim T^α$ obtained by unbinding of quantum phase--slips. However in the strongly inhomogeneous limit, the exponent $α$ is modified and the prefactor is {\em exponentially enhanced}. We examine the dependence of the exponent $α$ on an external magnetic field applied parallel to the wire. Finally, we show that the power--law dependence at low $T$ is consistent with a series of experimental data obtained in a variety of long and narrow samples. The values of $α$ extracted from the data, and the corresponding field dependence, are consistent with known parameters of the corresponding samples.
dc.description10 pages, 3 colored figures
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/0712.3241
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/0712.3241
dc.identifierPhys. Rev. B 77, 104528 (2008).
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/217329
dc.subjectSuperconductivity
dc.subjectStrongly Correlated Electrons
dc.titleResistivity of Inhomogeneous Superconducting Wires
dc.typetext

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