Retrapping current, self-heating, and hysteretic current-voltage characteristics in ultranarrow superconducting aluminum nanowires
Abstract
Hysteretic I-V (current-voltage) curves are studied in narrow Al nanowires. The nanowires
have a cross section as small as 50 nm2. We focus on the retrapping current in a down-sweep
of the current, at which a nanowire re-enters the superconducting state from a normal
state. The retrapping current is found to be significantly smaller than the switching
current at which the nanowire switches into the normal state from a superconducting
state during a current up-sweep. For wires of different lengths, we analyze the heat
removal due to various processes, including electron and phonon processes. For a short
wire 1.5μm in length, electronic thermal conduction is effective; for longer wires
10μm in length, phonon conduction becomes important. We demonstrate that the measured
retrapping current as a function of temperature can be quantitatively accounted for
by the self-heating occurring in the normal portions of the nanowires to better than
20% accuracy. For the phonon processes, the extracted thermal conduction parameters
support the notion of a reduced phase-space below three dimensions, consistent with
the phonon thermal wavelength having exceeded the lateral dimensions at temperatures
below ∼1.3 K. Nevertheless, surprisingly the best fit was achieved with a functional
form corresponding to three-dimensional phonons, albeit requiring parameters far exceeding
known values in the literature. © 2011 American Physical Society.
Type
Journal articleSubject
Science & TechnologyTechnology
Physical Sciences
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Physics, Applied
Physics, Condensed Matter
Materials Science
Physics
QUANTUM
WIRES
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19628Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1103/PhysRevB.84.184508Publication Info
Li, P; Wu, PM; Bomze, Y; Borzenets, IV; Finkelstein, G; & Chang, AM (2011). Retrapping current, self-heating, and hysteretic current-voltage characteristics in
ultranarrow superconducting aluminum nanowires. Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, 84(18). 10.1103/PhysRevB.84.184508. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19628.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Albert M. Chang
Professor of Physics
Gleb Finkelstein
Professor of Physics
Gleb Finkelstein is an experimentalist interested in physics of quantum nanostructures,
such as Josephson junctions and quantum dots made of carbon nanotubes, graphene, and
topological materials. These objects reveal a variety of interesting electronic properties
that may form a basis for future quantum devices.
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