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Size Dependent Breakdown of Superconductivity in Ultranarrow Nanowires

Maciej Zgirski·Karri-Pekka Riikonen·Vladimir Touboltsev·Konstantin Arutyunov
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Abstract

Below a certain temperature Tc (typically cryogenic), some materials lose their electric resistance R entering a superconducting state. Folowing the general trend toward a large scale integration of a greater number of electronic components, it is desirable to use superconducting elements in order to minimize heat dissipation. It is expected that the basic property of a superconductor, i.e. dissipationless electric current, will be preserved at reduced scales required by modern nanoelectronics. Unfortunately, there are indications that for a certain critical size limit of the order of 10 nm, below which a "superconducting" wire is no longer a superconductor in a sense that it acquires a finite resistance even at temperatures close to absolute zero. In the present paper we report an experimental evidence for a superconductivity breakdown in ultranarrow quasi-1D aluminum nanowires.

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Maciej Zgirski, Karri-Pekka Riikonen, Vladimir Touboltsev, Konstantin Arutyunov. 2005-10-07. Size Dependent Breakdown of Superconductivity in Ultranarrow Nanowires. https://doi.org/10.1021/nl050321e

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