Superinsulator and quantum synchronization.
Synchronized oscillators are ubiquitous in nature, and synchronization plays a key part in various classical and quantum phenomena. Several experiments have shown that in thin superconducting films, disorder enforces the droplet-like electronic texture 'superconducting islands immersed into a normal matrix' and that tuning disorder drives the system from superconducting to insulating behavior. In the vicinity of the transition, a distinct state forms: a Cooper-pair insulator, with thermally activated conductivity. It results from synchronization of the phase of the superconducting order parameter at the islands across the whole system. Here we show that at a certain finite temperature, a Cooper-pair insulator undergoes a transition to a superinsulating state with infinite resistance. We present experimental evidence of this transition in titanium nitride films and show that the superinsulating state is dual to the superconducting state: it is destroyed by a sufficiently strong critical magnetic field, and breaks down at some critical voltage that is analogous to the critical current in superconductors.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation; Russian Foundation for Basic Research; Russian Academy of Sciences; Deutsche Forschurgsgemeerschaft
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 958036
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/MSD/JA-64495; TRN: US201002%%220
- Journal Information:
- Nature, Vol. 452, Issue 3 ; Apr. 2008
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- ENGLISH
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