Tunneling and Transport in Nanowires

Technical Report · Tue Aug 16 00:00:00 EDT 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1295659· OSTI ID:1295659

Goldman, Allen M. ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)

The goal of this program was to study new physical phenomena that might be relevant to the performance of conductive devices and circuits of the smallest realizable feature sizes possible using physical rather than biological techniques. Although the initial scientific work supported involved the use of scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy to ascertain the statistics of the energy level distribution of randomly sized and randomly shaped quantum dots, or nano-crystals, the main focus was on the investigation of selected properties, including superconductivity, of conducting and superconducting nanowires prepared using electron-beam-lithography. We discovered a magnetic-field-restoration of superconductivity in out-of-equilibrium nanowires driven resistive by current. This phenomenon was explained by the existence of a state in which dissipation coexisted with nonvanishing superconducting order. We also produced ultra-small superconducting loops to study a predicted anomalous fluxoid quantization, but instead, found a magnetic-field-dependent, high-resistance state, rather than superconductivity. Finally, we developed a simple and controllable nanowire in an induced charged layer near the surface of a masked single-crystal insulator, SrTiO₃. The layer was induced using an electric double layer transistor employing an ionic liquid (IL). The transport properties of the induced nanowire resembled those of collective electronic transport through an array of quantum dots.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-02ER46004
• OSTI ID: 1295659
• Report Number(s): 1; TRN: US1700254
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY
NANOWIRES
ELECTRON BEAMS
QUANTUM DOTS
TUNNEL EFFECT
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPY
MAGNETIC FIELDS
RANDOMNESS
STATISTICS
ENERGY LEVELS
MAGNETIC FLUX
QUANTIZATION
SPECTROSCOPY
STRONTIUM TITANATES
electrical transport
electron-beam-lithography