Topic
Superinsulator
About: Superinsulator is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 18 publications have been published within this topic receiving 422 citations.
Papers
TL;DR: It is shown that at a certain finite temperature, a Cooper-pair insulator undergoes a transition to a superinsulating state with infinite resistance, and it is presented experimental evidence of this transition in titanium nitride films and shown that the superinsulation state is dual to the superconducting state.
Abstract: The introduction of disorder into thin superconducting films induces a droplet-like electronic texture, with superconducting islands immersed in a normal matrix. By fine-tuning this disorder, the system can be transformed from superconductor to insulator. A paper in this issue presents experimental evidence for the involvement of a previously uncharacterized 'superinsulating' state of matter in this process, a 'mirror image' equivalent of a superconductor with infinite resistance. During the transition from superconductor to insulator, a distinct conductivity state is formed, a Cooper-pair insulator, with thermally activated conductivity. Experiments in titanium nitride films show that at a certain finite temperature, a Cooper-pair insulator becomes a superinsulator, a state resembling superconductivity in that it is destroyed by a sufficiently strong critical magnetic field, and breaks down at some critical voltage. This paper shows that at a certain finite temperature, a Cooper-pair insulator undergoes a transition to a superinsulating state with infinite resistance. Experimental evidence of this transition in titanium nitride films is presented and it is demonstrated 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 which is analogous to the critical current in superconductors. Synchronized oscillators are ubiquitous in nature1, and synchronization plays a key part in various classical and quantum phenomena. Several experiments2,3,4 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 behaviour. In the vicinity of the transition, a distinct state4 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 system5. 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.
292 citations
TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that in disordered superconducting films that are on the brink of superconductor-insulator transition, the Coulomb forces between the charges acquire two-dimensional character, i.e. the corresponding interaction energy depends logarithmically upon charge separation, bringing the same vortex-charge-BKT transition duality, and realization of superinsulation in the disordered films as the low-temperature charge BKT state.
69 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the magnetic-field-induced superconductor-insulator transition was studied and it was shown that the insulating state is the electromagnetic dual of the superconducting state.
Abstract: A study of the magnetic-field-induced superconductor–insulator transition shows that the insulating state is the electromagnetic dual of the superconducting state. However, the duality breaks down at low temperature, suggesting an extra insulating state—such as the proposed superinsulator.
47 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, it was shown that the infinite resistance superinsulating state, which emerges on the insulating side of the superconductor-insulator transition in superconducting films offers a realization of confinement that allows for direct experimental access.
Abstract: One of the most profound aspects of the standard model of particle physics, the mechanism of confinement binding quarks into hadrons, is not sufficiently understood. The only known semiclassical mechanism of confinement, mediated by chromo-electric strings in a condensate of magnetic monopoles still lacks experimental evidence. Here we show that the infinite resistance superinsulating state, which emerges on the insulating side of the superconductor-insulator transition in superconducting films offers a realization of confinement that allows for a direct experimental access. We find that superinsulators realize a single-color version of quantum chromodynamics and establish the mapping of quarks onto Cooper pairs. We reveal that the mechanism of superinsulation is the linear binding of Cooper pairs into neutral “mesons” by electric strings. Our findings offer a powerful laboratory for exploring and testing the fundamental implications of confinement, asymptotic freedom, and related quantum chromodynamics phenomena via desktop experiments on superconductors. The standard model describes many aspects of particle physics but mechanisms such as the binding of quarks into hadrons, still remain a mystery. The authors theoretically outline an analogy with the Cooper pairs of a superinsulator to demonstrate that the mechanisms behind the infinite resistance of a superinsulator are analogous to that which confine quarks into hadrons.
47 citations
TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that the Coulomb forces between the charges acquire two-dimensional character, i.e. the corresponding interaction energy depends logarithmically upon charge separation, bringing the same vortex-charge-BKT transition duality.
Abstract: For nearly a half century the dominant orthodoxy has been that the only effect of the Cooper pairing is the state with zero resistivity at finite temperatures, superconductivity. In this work we demonstrate that by the symmetry of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle relating the amplitude and phase of the superconducting order parameter, Cooper pairing can generate the dual state with zero conductivity in the finite temperature range, superinsulation. We show that this duality realizes in the planar Josephson junction arrays (JJA) via the duality between the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition in the vortex-antivortex plasma, resulting in phase-coherent superconductivity below the transition temperature, and the charge-BKT transition occurring in the insulating state of JJA and marking formation of the low-temperature charge-BKT state, superinsulation. We find that in disordered superconducting films that are on the brink of superconductor-insulator transition the Coulomb forces between the charges acquire two-dimensional character, i.e. the corresponding interaction energy depends logarithmically upon charge separation, bringing the same vortex-charge-BKT transition duality, and realization of superinsulation in disordered films as the low-temperature charge-BKT state. Finally, we discuss possible applications and utilizations of superconductivity-superinsulation duality.
45 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 3 |
| 2019 | 3 |
| 2018 | 1 |
| 2013 | 3 |
| 2012 | 1 |
| 2011 | 3 |