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Title: Disordered Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition and superinsulation

Journal Article · · Physical Review B
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai (India). Department of Theoretical Physics
  2. 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, ξBKT ∝ exp (const / √T-TBKT), characterizing the average distance between the unbound topological excitations of the opposite signs, into a more singular Vogel-Fulcher-Tamman (VFT) behavior, ξVFT ∝ exp [const / (T-TVFT)] , 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.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab. (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; USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1425218
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1417692
Journal Information:
Physical Review B, Vol. 97, Issue 2; ISSN 2469-9950
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 6 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (2)

Charge Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in superconducting NbTiN films journal March 2018
Large current-induced broadening of the superconducting transition in Mo/Au transition edge sensors journal November 2018

Figures / Tables (2)


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