Pair-Breaking in Nanowires (IMAGE)
Caption
An illustration that describes Del Maestro's pair-breaking critical theory in nanowires. Electrons inside an ultra-thin MoGe wire with a radius on the order of 10 nanometers can pair up at low temperatures (green) and travel from one contact to the other without resistance in the superconducting phase. In the presence of a magnetic field penetrating the wire, the members of the pairs are deflected in opposite directions (pink and blue) and may collide with the edges of the wire and break apart. As the strength of the field is increased, all pairs break, and the nanowire undergoes a zero temperature phase transition from a superconductor to a normal metal. At the transition, the conductivity of the wire is a universal number that does not depend on any specific details of the wire composition or field direction.
Credit
Adrian Del Maestro
Usage Restrictions
non commercial with attribution
License
Licensed content