Study of granular two-band superconducting films: existence of a zero-temperature metallic phase (original) (raw)

Granular metallicity as a minimal normal state for superconductivity

Physical Review B, 2021

We report the evolution of electrical transport properties in insulating FeSe films with electron doping induced by the ionic liquid gating technique. Superconductivity never emerges in the strong insulators with variable-range hopping behavior but is shown to arise once the resistance of the normal state varies as ln(1/T), indicating that this behavior corresponds to the minimal conducting character for developing superconductivity. Our work points toward granular metallicity for the ln(1/T) behavior, suggesting that the emergence of superconductivity requires at least an insulating state containing metallic granules. Moreover, it unravels an electronic segregation in proximity to superconductor-insulator transition, which calls for a comprehensive understanding of this segregated phase.

Suppression of Superconductivity in Granular Metals

Physical Review Letters, 2004

We investigate the suppression of the superconducting transition temperature due to Coulomb repulsion in granular metallic systems at large tunneling conductance between the grains, gT ≫ 1. We find the correction to the superconducting transition temperature for 3D granular samples and films. We demonstrate that depending on the parameters of superconducting grains, the corresponding granular samples can be divided into two groups: (i) the granular samples that belong to the first group may have only insulating or superconducting states at zero temperature depending on the bare intergranular tunneling conductance gT , while (ii) the granular samples that belong to the second group in addition have an intermediate metallic phase where superconductivity is suppressed while the effects of the Coulomb blockade are not yet strong.

Effects of fluctuations and Coulomb interaction on the transition temperature of granular superconductors

Physical Review B, 2005

We investigate the suppression of superconducting transition temperature in granular metallic systems due to (i) fluctuations of the order parameter (bosonic mechanism) and (ii) Coulomb repulsion (fermionic mechanism) assuming large tunneling conductance between the grains gT ≫ 1. We find the correction to the superconducting transition temperature for 3d granular samples and films. We demonstrate that if the critical temperature Tc > gT δ, where δ is the mean level spacing in a single grain the bosonic mechanism is the dominant mechanism of the superconductivity suppression, while for critical temperatures Tc < gT δ the suppression of superconductivity is due to the fermionic mechanism.

Superconducting phase transitions in granular systems

Physical Review B, 1974

We consider a model for granular superconductors consisting of an array of small superconducting particles interacting by Josephson coupling through insulating barriers. %'e obtain systematically the various critical regions, critical temperature shifts, and crossover regions between zeroand three-dimensional behavior as functions of measurable sample parameters. The qualitative behavior of the system in the various regimes is analyzed and results for the specific heat and fluctuation conductivity in the Gaussian region above T, are obtained. The possibility of obtaining large critical regions is emphasized. The conditions for observing the phase-locking transition distinct from quasiordering within the grains are found. Theoretical predictions are compared with existing experimental results.

Giant Two-Level Systems in a Granular Superconductor

2024

Disordered thin films are a common choice of material for superconducting, high impedance circuits used in quantum information or particle detector physics. A wide selection of materials with different levels of granularity are available, but, despite low microwave losses being reported for some, the high degree of disorder always implies the presence of intrinsic defects. Prominently, quantum circuits are prone to interact with two-level systems (TLS), typically originating from solid state defects in the dielectric parts of the circuit, like surface oxides or tunneling barriers. We present an experimental investigation of TLS in granular aluminum thin films under applied mechanical strain and electric fields. The analysis reveals a class of strongly coupled TLS having electric dipole moments up to 30 eÅ, an order of magnitude larger than dipole moments commonly reported for solid state defects. Notably, these large dipole moments appear more often in films with a higher resistivity. Our observations shed new light on granular superconductors and may have implications for their usage as a quantum circuit material.

Quantum fluctuations and dissipative phase transition in granular superconductors

The zero temperature phase diagram of d-dimensional granular superconductors is considered. For small values of Josephson coupling Vcollective long-range quantum fluctuations play the leading role in the destruction of global phase coherence. At V-+0 the critical value of the dimensionless ohmic conductance o, diverges for d< 2 and it is equal to (Y,Z 0.82 for d= 3. For not very small values of V superconductivity may be destroyed by quantum phase slips on inidividual grains. In this case global phase coherence is restored only due to dissipative phase transition. The value of the critical resistance is found to be universal for strongly disordered granular films.

Irrelevance of disorder in the superconductor to insulator transition of granular aluminum

2021

We find excellent agreement between tunneling and optical conductivity gap values in superconducting granular aluminum films, up to the Metal to Insulator transition. This behavior, in strong contrast with that recently reported in atomically disordered samples for which the optical gap becomes smaller than the tunneling gap, rules out disorder as being at the origin of the transition. Rather, it confirms that it is of the Mott type. The large increase seen in the strong coupling ratio is interpreted as a sign of a BCS to BEC cross over, consistent with a Mott transition.

Insulating state of granular superconductors in a strong-coupling regime

Physical Review B, 2006

We analyze the possibility of the formation of a magnetic-field-induced insulating state in a twodimensional granular superconductor with relatively strong intergranular coupling and show that such a state appears in a model with spatial variations of the single-grain critical magnetic field. This model describes realistic granular samples with the dispersion in grain sizes and explains the mechanism leading to a giant peak in the magnetoresistance.

On the theory of diamagnetism in granular superconductors

1994

We study a highly disordered network of superconducting granules linked by weak Josephson junctions in magnetic field and develop a mean field theory for this problem. The diamagnetic response to a slow variations of magnetic field is found to be analogous to the response of a type-II superconductor with extremely strong pinning. We calculate an effective penetration depth λg and critical current jc and find that both λ −1 g suppressed by frustration. and jc are non-zero but are strongly Typeset using REVTEX 1 In the physics of type II superconductors it is common to distinguish between weakly and strongly disordered limits of the mixed state. The former case is described by the flux lattice distorted by disorder, while in the latter case the vortex loops proliferate and more adequate description is provided by the model in which the set of granules is coupled by