Geometric quenching of orbital pair breaking in a single crystalline superconducting nanomesh network

Nam, Hyoungdo; Chen, Hua; Adams, Philip W.; Guan, Syu-You; Chuang, Tien-Ming; Chang, Chia-Seng; MacDonald, Allan H.; Shih, Chih-Kang

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-07778-7

Geometric quenching of orbital pair breaking in a single crystalline superconducting nanomesh network

Journal Article · Fri Dec 21 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07778-7· OSTI ID:1609870

Nam, Hyoungdo ^[1]; Chen, Hua ^[2]; Adams, Philip W. ^[3]; Guan, Syu-You ^[4]; ^[4]; Chang, Chia-Seng ^[4]; MacDonald, Allan H. ^[5]; ^[5]

Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States); DOE/OSTI
Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, LA (United States)
Academia Sinica, Taipei (Taiwan)
Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)

In a superconductor Cooper pairs condense into a single state and in so doing support dissipation free charge flow and perfect diamagnetism. In a magnetic field the minimum kinetic energy of the Cooper pairs increases, producing an orbital pair breaking effect. We show that it is possible to significantly quench the orbital pair breaking effect for both parallel and perpendicular magnetic fields in a thin film superconductor with lateral nanostructure on a length scale smaller than the magnetic length. By growing an ultra-thin (2 nm thick) single crystalline Pb nanowire network, we establish nm scale lateral structure without introducing weak links. Our network suppresses orbital pair breaking for both perpendicular and in-plane fields with a negligible reduction in zero-field resistive critical temperatures. Our study opens a frontier in nanoscale superconductivity by providing a strategy for maintaining pairing in strong field environments in all directions with important technological implications.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, LA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: Academia Sinica; Golden Jade Fellowship of the Kenda Foundation, Taiwan; Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan; National Science Foundation (NSF); US Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-07ER46420

OSTI ID:: 1609870

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 9; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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