skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Large Enhancement of Critical Current in Superconducting Devices by Gate Voltage
Significant control over the properties of a high-carrier density superconductor via an applied electric field has been considered infeasible due to screening of the field over atomic length scales. Here, we demonstrate an enhancement of up to 30% in critical current in a back-gate tunable NbN micro- and nano superconducting bridges. Our suggested plausible mechanism of this enhancement in critical current based on surface nucleation and pinning of Abrikosov vortices is consistent with expectations and observations for type-II superconductor films with thicknesses comparable to their coherence length. Furthermore, we demonstrate an applied electric field-dependent infinite electroresistance and hysteretic resistance. Our work presents an electric field driven enhancement in the superconducting property in type-II superconductors which is a crucial step toward the understanding of field-effects on the fundamental properties of a superconductor and its exploitation for logic and memory applications in a superconductor-based low-dissipation digital computing paradigm.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1700137
PAR ID:
10251482
Author(s) / Creator(s):
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Nano letters
Volume:
21
ISSN:
1530-6992
Page Range / eLocation ID:
216-221
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. A microscopic understanding of vortex pinning in type II superconductors began with the theoretical discovery of magnetic vortices by Abrikosov, which received the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics [1, 2]. When type II superconductors are exposed to magnetic fields (H), the magnetic field enters as quantized vortices, each with a fundamental flux j0 = 2.07 × 10−11 T cm−2 , or 2.07 × 10−15 Wb. The vortex core size on the order of the superconducting coherence length can be very small, e.g. ∼1–2 nm for the cuprate family of high-temperature superconductors (HTSs). The vortices electrically interact with each other by repelling, and act collectively together as a flux lattice that is affected by the intrinsic crystal lattice properties and microstructure defects. For superconducting power applications where applied magnetic fields are in the range of 0.1 T to >30 T, the areal number density of the vortices can reach incredibly high values. For example, for an applied magnetic field of 5 T, the vortex areal density is around 2.5 × 1011 cm−2 , which translates to inter-vortex spacing of about 20 nm (assuming a square lattice for vortices). Somewhat surprisingly, if the crystal lattice for type II superconductors, such as HTS cuprates [3] is nearly perfect without any defects to pin vortices, the vortices can move collectively and almost freely in an applied magnetic field due to Lorentz forces, which results in electrical resistance at a fairly low critical current density Jc(H, T) at an applied magnetic field (H) and temperature (T). In order to realize useful critical current densities in type II superconductors, imperfections and defects must be added to the crystal lattice to effectively pin vortices. The simplest example of this was achieved in the (Y, RE)Ba2Cu3O7 (where RE is rare earth elements) family by depositing thin films, in which high densities of dislocations and other growth defects are added into the film microstructure and dramatically increase the critical current density Jc(77 K, H//c-axis) > 106 A cm−2 compared to Jc (77 K) < 103 A cm−2 for single crystals [4–6] 
    more » « less
  2. We study one-dimensional chains of superconducting islands with a particular emphasis on the regime in which every second island is switched into its normal state, thus forming a superconductor-insulator-normal metal (S-I-N) repetition pattern. As is known since Giaever tunneling experiments, tunneling charge transport between a superconductor and a normal metal becomes exponentially suppressed, and zero-bias resistance diverges, as the temperature is reduced and the energy gap of the superconductor grows larger than the thermal energy. Here we demonstrate that this physical phenomenon strongly impacts transport properties of inhomogeneous superconductors made of weakly coupled islands with fluctuating values of the critical temperature. We observe a nonmonotonous dependence of the chain resistance on both temperature and magnetic field, with a pronounced resistance peak at temperatures at which some but not all islands are superconducting. We explain this phenomenon by the inhomogeneity of the chains, in which neighboring superconducting islands have slightly different critical temperatures. We argue that the Giaever’s resistance divergence can also occur in the zero-temperature limit. Such quantum transition can occur if the magnetic field is tuned such that it suppresses superconductivity in the islands with the weaker critical field, while the islands with stronger energy gap remain superconducting. In such a field, the system acts as a chain of S-I-N junctions. 
    more » « less
  3. Introducing superconductivity in topological materials can lead to innovative electronic phases and device functionalities. Here, we present a unique strategy for quantum engineering of superconducting junctions in moiré materials through direct, on-chip, and fully encapsulated 2D crystal growth. We achieve robust and designable superconductivity in Pd-metalized twisted bilayer molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe2) and observe anomalous superconducting effects in high-quality junctions across ~20 moiré cells. Unexpectedly, the junction develops enhanced, instead of weakened, superconducting behaviors, exhibiting fluctuations to a higher critical magnetic field compared to its adjacent Pd7MoTe2superconductor. In addition, the critical current further exhibits a notable V-shaped minimum at zero magnetic field. These features are unexpected in conventional Josephson junctions and absent in junctions of natural bilayer MoTe2created using the same approach. We discuss implications of these observations, including the possible formation of mixed even- and odd-parity superconductivity at the moiré junctions. Our results also demonstrate a pathway to engineer and investigate superconductivity in fractional Chern insulators. 
    more » « less
  4. The abrupt drop of resistance to zero at a critical temperature is a key signature of the current paradigm of the metal–superconductor transition. However, the emergence of an intermediate bosonic insulating state characterized by a resistance peak preceding the onset of the superconducting transition has challenged this traditional understanding. Notably, this phenomenon has been predominantly observed in disordered or chemically doped low-dimensional systems, raising intriguing questions about the generality of the effect and its underlying fundamental physics. Here, we present a systematic experimental study of compressed elemental sulfur, an undoped three-dimensional (3D) high-pressure superconductor, with detailed measurements of electrical resistance as a function of temperature, magnetic field, and current. The anomalous resistance peak observed in this 3D system is interpreted based on an empirical model of a metal–bosonic insulator–superconductor transition, potentially driven by vortex dynamics under magnetic field and energy dissipation processes. These findings offer a fresh platform for theoretical analysis of the decades-long enigmatic of the underlying mechanism of this phenomenon. 
    more » « less
  5. A planar Josephson junction is a versatile platform to realize topological superconductivity over a large parameter space and host Majorana bound states. With a change in the Zeeman field, this system undergoes a transition from trivial to topological superconductivity accompanied by a jump in the superconducting phase difference between the two superconductors. A standard model of these Josephson junctions, which can be fabricated to have a nearly perfect interfacial transparency, predicts a simple universal behavior. In that model, at the same value of Zeeman field for the topological transition, there is a π phase jump and a minimum in the critical superconducting current, while applying a controllable phase difference yields a diamond-shaped topological region as a function of that phase difference and a Zeeman field. In contrast, even for a perfect interfacial transparency, we find a much richer and nonuniversal behavior as the width of the superconductor is varied or the Dresselhaus spin–orbit coupling is considered. The Zeeman field for the phase jump, not necessarily π, is different from the value for the minimum critical current, while there is a strong deviation from the diamond-like topological region. These Josephson junctions show a striking example of a nonreciprocal transport and superconducting diode effect, revealing the importance of our findings not only for topological superconductivity and fault-tolerant quantum computing but also for superconducting spintronics. 
    more » « less