Vortices and quasiparticles near the superconductor-insulator transition in thin films

We study the low temperature behavior of an amorphous superconducting film driven normal by a perpendicular magnetic-field (B). For this purpose we introduce a new two-fluid formulation consisting of fermionized field-induced vortices and electrically neutralized Bogoliubov quasiparticles (spinons) interacting via a long-ranged statistical interaction. This approach allows us to access a novel non-Fermi-liquid phase, which naturally interpolates between the low B superconductor and the high B normal metal. We discuss the properties of the resulting "vortex metal" phase.     

Observation of the parallel-magnetic-field-induced superconductor-insulator transition in thin amorphous InO films

We study the response of a thin superconducting amorphous InO film with variable oxygen content to a magnetic field. A field-induced superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) is observed that is very similar to the one in normal magnetic fields. As the boson-vortex duality, which is the keystone of the theory of the field-induced SIT, is obviously absent in the parallel configuration, we have to draw a conclusion about the theory’s insufficiency.     

Magnetic-field-tuned quantum phase transition in the insulating regime of ultrathin amorphous Bi films

A surprisingly strong variation of resistance with a perpendicular magnetic field, and a peak in the resistance versus field, R(B) has been found in insulating films of a sequence of homogeneous, quench-condensed films of amorphous Bi undergoing a thickness-tuned superconductor-insulator transition. Isotherms of magnetoresistance, rather than resistance, versus field were found to cross at a well-defined magnetic field higher than the field corresponding to the peak in R(B). For all values of B, R(T) was found to obey an Arrhenius form. At the crossover magnetic field the prefactor became equal to the quantum resistance of electron pairs h/4e2, and the activation energy returned to its zero-field value. These observations suggest that the crossover is the signature of a quantum phase transition between two distinct insulating ground states, tuned by magnetic field.     

Superconductivity on the localization threshold and magnetic-field-tuned superconductor-insulator transition in TiN films

Temperature-and magnetic-field-dependent measurements of the resistance of ultrathin superconducting TiN films are presented. The analysis of the temperature dependence of the zero-field resistance indicates an underlying insulating behavior, when the contribution of Aslamazov-Larkin fluctuations is taken into account. This demonstrates the possibility of the coexistence of the superconducting and insulating phases and of a direct transition from the one to the other. The scaling behavior of magnetic field data is in accordance with a superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) driven by quantum phase fluctuations in two-dimensional superconductor. The temperature dependence of the isomagnetic resistance data on the high-field side of the SIT has been analyzed, and the presence of an insulating phase is confirmed. A transition from the insulating to a metallic phase is found at high magnetic fields, where the zero-temperature asymptotic value of the resistance is equal to h/e².     

Angular dependence of the magnetic-field driven superconductor-insulator transition in thin films of amorphous indium-oxide

A significant anisotropy of the magnetic-field driven superconductor-insulator transition is observed in thin films of amorphous indium-oxide. The anisotropy is largest for more disordered films which have a lower transition field. At higher magnetic fields the anisotropy reduces and even changes sign beyond a sample specific and temperature independent magnetic field value. The data are consistent with the existence of more than one mechanism affecting transport at high magnetic fields.     

Sharp superconductor-insulator transition in short wires

Recent experiments on short MoGe nanowires show a sharp superconducting-insulating transition at the universal resistance R(Q)=h/(4e(2)), contrary to the expectation of a smooth temperature dependence of the resistance for such Josephson-like systems. We present a self-consistent renormalization-group treatment of interacting quantum phase slips in short superconducting wires, which reproduces this sharp universal transition. Our method should also apply to other systems in the sine-Gordon universality class, in the previously inaccessible intermediate-coupling regime.     

Reflections on the superconductor-insulator transition

The anomalously long superconducting coherence lengths observed in YBCO/PBCO multilayers are interpreted in terms of a boson localization picture for the superconductor-insulator transition in YBCO as Pr is substituted for Y. It is suggested that the combination of finite vortex mass and reduced superfluid density for the proximity-induced order parameter in PBCO should lead to enhanced quantum creep in these multilayer samples.     

Destruction of localized electron pairs above the magnetic-field-driven superconductor-insulator transition in amorphous In-O films

The field-induced superconductivity-destroying quantum transition in amorphous indium oxide films are investigated at low temperatures down to 30 mK. It is found that, on the high-field side of the transition, the magnetoresistance reaches a maximum and the phase can be insulating as well as metallic. With further increase of the magnetic field the resistance of the film drops and in the high-field limit approaches the resistance value at the transition point, so that at high fields the metallic phase occurs for both cases. We give a qualitative account of this behavior in terms of field-induced destruction of localized electron pairs. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 68, No. 4, 337–342 (25 August 1998)     

Hyperactivated resistance in TiN films on the insulating side of the disorder-driven superconductor-insulator transition

We investigate the insulating phase that forms in a titanium nitride film in a close vicinity of the disorder-driven superconductor-insulator transition. In zero magnetic field the temperature dependence of the resistance reveals a sequence of distinct regimes upon decreasing temperature crossing over from logarithmic to activated behavior with the variable-range hopping squeezing in between. In perpendicular magnetic fields below 2 T, the thermally activated regime retains at intermediate temperatures, whereas at ultralow temperatures, the resistance increases faster than that of the thermally activated type. This indicates a change of the mechanism of the conductivity. We find that at higher magnetic fields the thermally activated behavior disappears and the magnetoresistive isotherms saturate towards the value close to quantum resistance h/e ². The article is published in the original.     

Localized superconductivity in the quantum-critical region of the disorder-driven superconductor-insulator transition in TiN thin films

We investigate low-temperature transport properties of thin TiN superconducting films in the vicinity of the disorder-driven superconductor-insulator transition. In a zero magnetic field, we find an extremely sharp separation between superconducting and insulating phases, evidencing a direct superconductor-insulator transition without an intermediate metallic phase. At moderate temperatures, in the insulating films we reveal thermally activated conductivity with the magnetic field-dependent activation energy. At very low temperatures, we observe a zero-conductivity state, which is destroyed at some depinning threshold voltage V{T}. These findings indicate the formation of a distinct collective state of the localized Cooper pairs in the critical region at both sides of the transition.     

Coulomb interaction and first-order superconductor-insulator transition

The superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) in regular arrays of Josephson junctions is studied at low temperatures. We derived an imaginary time Ginzburg-Landau-type action properly describing the Coulomb interaction. The renormalization group analysis at zero temperature T=0 in the space dimensionality d=3 shows that the SIT is always of the first order. At finite T, a tricritical point separates the lines of the first- and second-order phase transitions. The same conclusion holds for d=2 if the mutual capacitance is larger than the distance between junctions.     

Disorder driven superconductor-insulator transition in inhomogenous d-wave superconductor

We study the effect of disorder on the superconductor-insulator transition in an inhomogeneous d-wave superconductor using the kernel polynomial method. As the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations of the two-dimensional square lattice are solved self-consistently for the cases with more than 100000 unit cells, it is possible to observe the spatial fluctuations of the superconducting order parameters at the nanoscale. We find that strong spatial fluctuation of the superconducting order parameters can be introduced by disorder, and some superconducting specific order parameters are even enhanced. Moreover, we find that some isolated superconducting "islands" can survive the strong disorder, giving a boson insulator with some localized Cooper pairs. Our numerical calculations predict the existence of two sequential transitions with the increasing disorder strength: a d-wave to s-wave superconductor transition, and then an s-wave superconductor to insulator transition. The possibility of the appearance of a metallic phase between the superconducting and insulating phases is excluded by performing the lattice-size scaling of the generalized inverse participation ratio. In addition, we also discuss the effect of disorder on the optical conductivity of the d-wave superconductors.     

Critical field enhancement near a superconductor-insulator transition

We have discovered a phenomenon where the orbital pair breaking effect is reduced, if not eliminated. It appears as a striking enhancement in the upper critical field H(c2) for (TMTSF)2PF6 and a strong upward curvature in the critical field versus temperature in the region of pressure-temperature phase space near the superconductor-spin density wave insulator boundary. A simple model based on self-consistently dividing the superconductor into layers explains the observations remarkably well and provides a unique way around orbital frustration and toward higher critical fields.     

Electrostatic tuning of the superconductor-insulator transition in two dimensions

Superconductivity has been induced in insulating ultrathin films of amorphous bismuth using the electric field effect. The screening of the electron-electron interaction was found to increase with electron concentration in a manner correlated with the tendency towards superconductivity. This does not preclude an increase in the density of states being important in the development of superconductivity. The superconductor-insulator transition appears to belong to the universality class of the three dimensional XY model.     

Bosonic topological insulator intermediate state in the superconductor-insulator transition

A low-temperature intervening metallic regime arising in the two-dimensional superconductor-insulator transition challenges our understanding of electronic fluids. Here we develop a gauge theory revealing that this emergent anomalous metal is a bosonic topological insulator where bulk transport is suppressed by mutual statistics interactions between out-of-condensate Cooper pairs and vortices and the longitudinal conductivity is mediated by symmetry-protected gapless edge modes. We explore the magnetic-field-driven superconductor-insulator transition in a niobium titanium nitride device and find marked signatures of a bosonic topological insulator behavior of the intervening regime with the saturating resistance. The observed superconductor-anomalous metal and insulator-anomalous metal dual phase transitions exhibit quantum Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless criticality in accord with the gauge theory.     

On field effect studies and superconductor-insulator transition in high-Tc cuprates

We summarize previous field effect studies in high-T _c cuprates and then discuss our method to smoothly tune the carrier concentration of a cuprate film over a wide range using an applied electric field. We synthesized epitaxial one-unit-cell thick films of La_2?x Sr _x CuO₄ and from them fabricated electric double layer transistor devices utilizing various gate electrolytes. We were able to vary the carrier density by about 0.08 carriers per Cu atom, with the resulting change in T _c of 30 K. The superconductor-insulator transition occurred at the critical resistance very close to the quantum resistance for pairs, R _Q = h/(2e)² = 6.5 kΩ. This is suggestive of a quantum phase transition, possibly driven by quantum phase fluctuations, between a “Bose insulator” and a high-T _c superconductor state.