Disordered Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition and superinsulation

Sankar, S.; Vinokur, V. M.; Tripathi, V.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.97.020507

Disordered Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition and superinsulation

Journal Article · Sun Jan 21 23:00:00 EST 2018 · Physical Review B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.020507· OSTI ID:1425218

Sankar, S. ^[1]; Vinokur, V. M. ^[2]; Tripathi, V. ^[1]

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai (India). Department of Theoretical Physics
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division

Here, we investigate the critical Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) behavior of disordered two-dimensional Josephson-junction arrays (JJA) on the insulating side of the superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) taking into account the effect of hitherto ignored residual random dipole moments of the superconducting grains. We show that for weak Josephson coupling the model is equivalent to a Coulomb gas subjected to a disorder potential with logarithmic correlations. We demonstrate that strong enough disorder transforms the BKT divergence of the correlation length, ξ_BKT ∝ exp (const / √T-T_BKT), characterizing the average distance between the unbound topological excitations of the opposite signs, into a more singular Vogel-Fulcher-Tamman (VFT) behavior, ξ_VFT ∝ exp [const / (T-T_VFT)] , which is viewed as a hallmark of glass transitions in glass-forming materials. We further show that the VFT criticality is a precursor of the transition into a nonergodic superinsulating state, while the BKT critical behavior implies freezing into an ergodic confined BKT state. Finally, our finding sheds light on the yet unresolved problem of the origin of the VFT criticality.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; India Department of Science and Technology

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1425218

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1417692

Journal Information:: Physical Review B, Journal Name: Physical Review B Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 97; ISSN 2469-9950; ISSN PRBMDO

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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