Dependence of the maximal superconducting current on the resonance frequency in a shunted Josephson junction

We have analyzed the phase dynamics and current–voltage characteristics of a Josephson junction shunted by an LC circuit. When the Josephson frequency ω _J becomes equal to the natural frequency ω_rc of the formed resonance circuit, the I–V curve acquires additional branches. We have studied the features of the rc branch and the superconducting circuit for different values of the resonance frequency. It is shown that the maximal superconducting current through the Josephson junction on the rc-branch depends on the resonance frequency and is determined by the closeness of the end point of the rc branch to the critical current. We have determined the dependence of the maximal superconducting current on the resonance frequency for different values of the dissipation parameters. The limiting value of the maximal superconducting current is independent (to within 1%) of the parameters of the system.     

Magnetism in structures with ferromagnetic and superconducting layers

The influence of superconductivity on ferromagnetism in the layered Ta/V/Fe_1–x V _x /V/Fe_1–x V _x /Nb/Si structures consisting of ferromagnetic and superconducting layers is studied using polarized neutron reflection and scattering. It is experimentally shown that magnetic structures with linear sizes from 5 nm to 30 μm are formed in these layered structures at low temperatures. The magnetization of the magnetic structures is suppressed by superconductivity at temperatures below the superconducting transition temperatures in the V and Nb layers. The magnetic states of the structures are shown to undergo relaxation over a wide magnetic-field range, which is caused by changes in the states of clusters, domains, and Abrikosov vortices.     

Coulomb repul sion of hole s and competition between $${d_{{x^2} - {y^2}}}$$ -wave and s-wave paring s in cuprate superconductor s

The effect of the Coulomb repulsion of holes on the Cooper instability in an ensemble of spin–polaron quasiparticles has been analyzed, taking into account the peculiarities of the crystallographic structure of the CuO₂ plane, which are associated with the presence of two oxygen ions and one copper ion in the unit cell, as well as the strong spin–fermion coupling. The investigation of the possibility of implementation of superconducting phases with d-wave and s-wave of the order parameter symmetry has shown that in the entire doping region only the d-wave pairing satisfies the self-consistency equations, while there is no solution for the s-wave pairing. This result completely corresponds to the experimental data on cuprate HTSC. It has been demonstrated analytically that the intersite Coulomb interaction does not affect the superconducting d-wave pairing, because its Fourier transform V _q does not appear in the kernel of the corresponding integral equation.     

Thermal mechanisms responsible for the irreversible degradation of superconductivity in commercial superconductors

Conditions for the irreversible propagation of thermal instabilities in commercial superconductors subjected to intense and soft cooling have been formulated. An analysis has been conducted using two types of the superconductor’s I–V characteristics, i.e., an ideal I–V characteristic, which assumes a step superconducting-to-normal transition, and a continuous I–V characteristic, which is described by a power law. The propagation rate of thermal instabilities along the superconducting composite has been determined. Calculations have been made for both subcritical and supercritical values of the current. It has been shown that they propagate along a commercial superconductor in the form of a switching wave. In rapidly cooled commercial superconductors, the steady-state rate of thermal instability propagation in the longitudinal direction can only be positive because there is no region of steady stabilization. It has been proved that, in the case of thermal instability irreversible propagation, the rise in the commercial superconductor temperature is similar to diffusion processes that occur in explosive chain reactions.     

Superconductivity of vanadium and vanadium-titanium alloys at high pressure

The effect of pressure on the superconducting transition temperature T _c of vanadium and V₉₄Ti₆, V₈₅Ti₁₅, V₆₇Ti₃₃, and V₄₈Ti₅₂ (at %) bcc alloys has been studied. It has been found that the T _c(P) dependence of pure vanadium is close to linear in the pressure ranges 0–14 and 23–32 GPa, whereas dT _c/dP decreases to zero with a pressure increase in the 14–23 GPa range. The T _c(P) curves for all alloys are nonmonotonic and have two features in the respective pressure ranges of 3–11 and (a peak-shaped feature) 15–25 GPa.     

Effect of interstitial Coulomb interaction on the occurrence of a gapless superconducting phase of Hubbard fermions on a triangular lattice

The concentration dependence of the position of nodal points of a superconducting order parameter is investigated using the t–J–V model for a triangular lattice with regard to the exchange and Coulomb interactions in two coordination spheres. The conditions for a topological quantum transition are established.     

Effect of incommensurate potential on the resonant tunneling through Majorana bound states on the topological superconductor chains

We study the transport through the Kitaev chain with incommensurate potentials coupled to two normal leads by the numerical operator method. We find a quantized linear conductance of e ² / h, which is independent to the disorder strength and the gate voltage in a wide range, signaling the Majorana bound states. While the incommensurate potential suppresses the current at finite voltage bias, and then narrows the linear response regime of the I-V curve which exhibits two plateaus corresponding to the superconducting gap and the band edge, respectively. The linear conductance abruptly drops to zero as the disorder strength reaches the critical value 2g _s + 2Δ with Δ the p-wave pairing amplitude and g _s the hopping between neighbor sites, corresponding to the transition from the topological superconducting phase to the Anderson localized phase. Changing the gate voltage also causes an abrupt drop of the linear conductance by driving the chain into the topologically trivial superconducting phase, whose I-V curve exhibits an exponential shape.     

Effect of oxygen impurity on the efficiency of the formation of complexes with H-bond and aggregation of color centers in lithium fluoride

The effect of impurities on the efficiency of the formation of color centers and hydrogen-bonded molecular complexes upon exposure to various radiations in lithium fluoride crystals grown in air is studied. The results of experiments for measuring optical properties, IR vibrational spectra, luminescence, and thermally stimulated luminescence are presented. The fact that the band in the range of 1800–2300 cm^–1 corresponds to stretching vibrations of a complex with strong hydrogen bond is proved based on the Fermi-resonance perturbation in the region of 2080 cm^–1, shaped as the Evans hole and bands A, B, and C. It is shown that the composition of these complexes includes an OH^– ion and an HF molecule. The crucial role of O^2? V _a ⁺ oxygen dipoles in the aggregation efficiency and gradient distribution of color centers and radiation resistance of hydroxyl ions is revealed. It is shown that products of radiation decomposition of OH^– ions stimulate, while decay of O^2? V _a ⁺ dipoles suppress, the formation of positively charged color centers.     

Almost mobility edges and the existence of critical regions in one-dimensional quasiperiodic lattices

We study a one-dimensional quasiperiodic system described by the Aubry–André model in the small wave vector limit and demonstrate the existence of almost mobility edges and critical regions in the system. It is well known that the eigenstates of the Aubry–André model are either extended or localized depending on the strength of incommensurate potential V being less or bigger than a critical value V _c , and thus no mobility edge exists. However, it was shown in a recent work that for the system with V < V _c and the wave vector α of the incommensurate potential is small, there exist almost mobility edges at the energy E _c±, which separate the robustly delocalized states from “almost localized” states. We find that, besides E _c±, there exist additionally another energy edges E _c′±, at which abrupt change of inverse participation ratio (IPR) occurs. By using the IPR and carrying out multifractal analyses, we identify the existence of critical regions among |E _c±|?≤?|E|?≤?|E _c′±| with the mobility edges E _c± and E _c′± separating the critical region from the extended and localized regions, respectively. We also study the system with V > V _c , for which all eigenstates are localized states, but can be divided into extended, critical and localized states in their dual space by utilizing the self-duality property of the Aubry–André model.     

A pseudopotential approach to the superconducting state properties of Cu<Subscript>C</Subscript>Zr<Subscript>100-C</Subscript> binary metallic glasses

The theoretical investigation of the superconducting state properties viz. electron-phonon coupling strength λ, Coulomb pseudopotential μ*, transition temperature T _C, isotope effect exponent α and effective interaction strength N ₀ V of ten binary Cu_CZr_100-C (C = 25–60 at%) metallic glasses is performed, using Ashcroft’s empty core model potential. Five local-field correction functions proposed by Hartree (H), Taylor (T), Ichimaru-Utsumi (IU), Farid et al. (F) and Sarkar et al. (S) are used to study the screening influence on the aforesaid properties. It is shown that the electronphonon coupling strength λ and the transition temperature T _C are quite sensitive to the selection of the local-field correction functions, whereas the Coulomb pseudopotential μ*, isotope effect exponent α and effective interaction strength N ₀ V show a weak dependence on the local-field correction functions. The values of T _C obtained from the H-local-field correction function are found to be in qualitative agreement with available theoretical or experimental data and show almost linear behavior with respect to the concentration C of Cu. The present results are shown to be in good agreement with other available theoretical or experimental data. The obtained results confirm the existence of the superconducting phase in the metallic glasses.     

Screening properties of multiply connected ferromagnet–superconductor hybrid structures

Superconducting phase transition temperature T _c of a ferromagnet/superconductor (SF) hybrid structure consisting of a hollow superconducting (S) cylinder (shell) with the central part (core) filled with a ferromagnetic (F) metal has been analyzed on the basis of linearized Usadel equations. It has been shown that the proximity effect between the S and F metals, as well as the exchange interaction, may induce an inhomogeneous superconducting state with Δ ~ exp(iLθ + ipz), which is characterized by nonzero circulation of phase L and wavenumber p describing the Larkin–Ovchinnikov–Fulde–Ferrell (LOFF) instability along the cylinder axis. The transitions between the states with different values of L and p, which are accompanied by a nonmonotonic dependence of superconducting transition temperature T _c and effective magnetic field penetration depth Λ into the SF structure on the characteristic size of the ferromagnetic region, have been investigated.     

Threshold perturbations in current-carrying superconducting bridges with a finite length near the critical temperature

Near the critical temperature of a superconducting transition, the energy of the threshold perturbation δF_thr that transfers a superconducting bridge to a resistive state at a current below the critical current I_c has been determined. It has been shown that δF_thr increases with a decrease in the length of a bridge for short bridges with lengths L < ξ (where ξ is the coherence length) and is saturated for long bridges with L ? ξ. At certain geometrical parameters of banks and bridge, the function δF_thr(L) at the current I → 0 has a minimum at L ~ (2–3)ξ. These results indicate that the effect of fluctuations on Josephson junctions made in the form of short superconducting bridges is reduced and that the effect of fluctuations on bridges with lengths ~(2–3)ξ is enhanced.     

Development of the method for low-temperature investigations of HTSC systems on an X-ray electron magnetic spectrometer

Peculiarities of the chemical structure of bulk polycrystalline samples of the high-temperature superconductors Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O₈, BiSrCaCu₂O_5.5, BiSrCaCu₃O₈, and YBa₂Cu₃O_{7 ? δ} have been investigated in detail at room and superconducting temperatures on an X-ray electron magnetic spectrometer equipped with an attachment for low-temperature studies. It is shown that covalent bonding is formed at a superconducting temperature between copper and oxygen due to Cu²⁺ ions. Due to the enhancement of the d(Cu)–p(O) hybridization of copper and oxygen electrons in the superconducting state, the d-electron density increases near E _F. The occurrence of additional peaks in the O1s and Sr3d (Ba3d) spectra after transition of the system to the superconducting state indicates changes in the nearest environment of O and Sr (Ba) atoms, in particular, the transition of Sr atoms to a higher oxidation state.     

Asymmetric Tunneling Conductance and the Non-Fermi Liquid Behavior of Strongly Correlated Fermi Systems

Tunneling differential conductivity (or resistivity) is a sensitive tool to experimentally test the non-Fermi liquid behavior of strongly correlated Fermi systems. In the case of common metals the Landau–Fermi liquid theory demonstrates that the differential conductivity is a symmetric function of bias voltage V. This is because the particle–hole symmetry is conserved in the Landau–Fermi liquid state. When a strongly correlated Fermi system turns out to be near the topological fermion condensation quantum phase transition, its Landau–Fermi liquid properties disappear so that the particle–hole symmetry breaks making the differential tunneling conductivity to be asymmetric function of V. This asymmetry can be observed when a strongly correlated metal is in its normal, superconducting or pseudogap states. We show that the asymmetric part of the dynamic conductance does not depend on temperature provided that the metal is in its superconducting or pseudogap states. In normal state, the asymmetric part diminishes at rising temperatures. Under the application of magnetic field the metal transits to the Landau–Fermi liquid state and the differential tunneling conductivity becomes a symmetric function of V. These findings are in good agreement with recent experimental observations.     

Contactless method for measuring the parameters of the current-voltage characteristic of YBCO superconductors in a perpendicular magnetic field

A contactless method for determination of the parameters of the current-voltage (I—V) characteristic of hard superconductors by measuring the magnetization relaxation of the superconductor in a perpendicular magnetic field has been developed. The relaxation curves obtained for melt-textured YBCO samples are well approximated by the curves calculated within the electrodynamic model based on power-law I—V characteristics. This procedure uses only two fitting parameters: the critical current density J _c and the exponent m of the I—V characteristic.     

Nonstoichiometric high-pressure phase of Tm<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>Cu<Subscript>3</Subscript>V<Subscript>4</Subscript>O<Subscript>12</Subscript>

Tm _x Cu₃V₄O₁₂, a perovskite-like oxide (space group, Im-3; Z = 2; a = 7.279–7.293 Å) containing vacancies in its cationic sublattice, was obtained barothermally (P = 7.0–9.0 GPa, t = 1000–1100°C) for the first time. The temperature dependences on the electrical resistivity (10–300 K) and the magnetic susceptibility (0–300 K) were investigated. It was shown that the oxide Tm _x Cu₃V₄O₁₂ is characterized by metal-type conductivity and paramagnetic properties.     

Field-effect transistor structures on the basis of poly(3-hexylthiophene), fullerene derivatives [60]PCBM, [70]PCBM,and nickel nanoparticles

Organic field-effect transistor (OFET) structures with the active layers on the basis of composite films of semiconductor polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), fullerene derivatives [60]PCBM, [70]PCBM, and nickel (Ni) nanoparticles are obtained, and their optical, electrical, and photoelectrical properties are studied. It is shown that introducing Ni nanoparticles into P3HT: [60]PCBM and P3HT: [70]PCBM films leads to an increase in the absorption and to quenching of photoluminescence of the composite in the 400–600 nm spectral band due to the plasmon effect. In P3HT: [60]PCBM: Ni and P3HT: [70]PCBM: Ni OFET structures at the P3HT: [60]PCBM and P3HT: [70]PCBM concentrations of ~1: 1 and Ni concentrations of ~3–5 wt %, current–voltage (I–V) characteristics typical of ambipolar OFETs with the dominant hole conduction are observed. The charge-carrier (hole) mobilities calculated from the I–V characteristic at V_G =–10 V were found to be ~0.46 cm²/(V s) for P3HT: [60]PCBM: Ni and ~4.7 cm²/(V s) for P3HT: [70]PCBM: Ni, which means that the mobility increases if [60]PCBM in the composition is replaced with [70]PCBM. The effect of light on the I–V characteristics of P3HT: [60]PCBM: Ni and P3HT: [70]PCBM: Ni OFETs is studied.     

Superconducting properties of superlattices containing ferromagnetic layers

Using the microscopic theory formulated by de Gennes and extended by Takahashi and Tachiki, we calculate the transition temperatureT _c and the pair functionF for the superlattices consisting of superconducting and ferromagnetic layers. Superconducting layers. (s) and ferromagnetic layers (f) are modeled byV _s ≠0 andI _m,s =0 andV _f =0 andI _m,f ≠0, whereV _s .(V _f ) is the BCS coupling constant andI _m,s (I _m,f ) is the molecular field fors (f) layers.     

Phase transitions in hybrid SFS structures with thin superconducting layers

Calculations of critical temperature T _c of the phase transition to superconducting state of a superconductor/ ferromagnet/superconductor (SFS) hybrid structure with proximity effect is performed on the base of linearized Usadel equations. It is shown that the proximity effect between S and F metals and the exchange interaction can induce an inhomogeneous superconducting state with longitudinal to layers Δ _∝ exp(ipz) modulation of the superconductivity order parameter, which is characterized by nonzero value of the wave number p, describing the Larkin–Ovchinnikov–Fulde–Ferrell instability. Influence of this instability on transitions between 0- and π-states of the SFS structure is studied. It is shown that the 0–π transition is accompanied by a nonmonotonic dependence of both the critical temperature T _c and the effective penetration depth Λ of the magnetic field into the hybrid structure on the characteristic size of the ferromagnetic region.     

Effect of cation composition on the superconducting properties and on the microstructure of YBaCuO thin films

The surface morphology and superconducting properties of YBaCuO epitaxial films prepared through magnetron sputtering from targets of different cation composition were systematically studied. It was shown that small changes in the growth conditions and relatively small variations in the cation composition of the condensate noticeably affect the surface morphology of the films and their structural and superconducting properties, thus offering an efficient way of controlling the YBCO film parameters. It was found that the 90° off-axis configuration of the magnetron sputtering system permits realization of growth conditions in which the grown films do not contain CuO precipitates and exhibit good superconducting properties (T_c≥88 K, j_c(77 K)≥4×10⁶ A/cm²).