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Title: Superconductor–insulator transitions in three-dimensional indium-oxide at high pressures
Abstract

Experiments investigating magnetic-field-tuned superconductor–insulator transition (HSIT) mostly focus on two-dimensional material systems where the transition and its proximate ground-state phases, often exhibit features that are seemingly at odds with the expected behavior. Here we present a complementary study of a three-dimensional pressure-packed amorphous indium-oxide (InOx) powder where granularity controls the HSIT. Above a low threshold pressure of ∼0.2 GPa, vestiges of superconductivity are detected, although neither a true superconducting transition nor insulating behavior are observed. Instead, a saturation at very high resistivity at low pressure is followed by saturation at very low resistivity at higher pressure. We identify both as different manifestations of anomalous metallic phases dominated by superconducting fluctuations. By analogy with previous identification of the low resistance saturation as a ‘failed superconductor’, our data suggests that the very high resistance saturation is a manifestation of a ‘failed insulator’. Above a threshold pressure of ∼6 GPa, the sample becomes fully packed, and superconductivity is robust, withTCtunable with pressure. A quantum critical point atPC∼ 25 GPa marks the complete suppression of superconductivity. For a finite pressure belowPC, a magnetic field is shown to induce a HSIT from a true zero-resistance superconducting state to a weakly insulating behavior. Determining the critical field,HC, we show that similar to the 2D behavior, the insulating-like state maintains a superconducting character, which is quenched at higher field, above which the magnetoresistance decreases to its fermionic normal state value.

 
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Award ID(s):
1808385
PAR ID:
10361826
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
IOP Publishing
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter
Volume:
34
Issue:
13
ISSN:
0953-8984
Page Range / eLocation ID:
Article No. 135402
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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