Universal transport in 2D granular superconductors

The transport properties of quench condensed granular superconductors are presented and analyzed. These systems exhibit transitions from insulating to superconducting behavior as a function of inter-grain spacing. Superconductivity is characterized by broad transitions in which the resistance drops exponentially with reducing temperature. The slope of the log R versus T curves turns out to be universaly dependent on the normal state film resistance for all measured granular systems. It does not depend on the material, critical temperature, geometry, or experimental set-up. We discuss possible physical scenarios to explain these findings.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

q-Breathers and thermalization in acoustic chains with arbitrary nonlinearity index

Nonlinearity shapes lattice dynamics affecting vibrational spectrum, transport and thermalization phenomena. Beside breathers and solitons one finds the third fundamental class of nonlinear modes -- $q$-breathers -- periodic orbits in nonlinear lattices, exponentially localized in the reciprocal mode space. To date, the studies of $q$-breathers have been confined to the cubic and quartic nonlinearity in the interaction potential. In this paper we study the case of arbitrary nonlinearity index $\gamma$ in an acoustic chain. We uncover qualitative difference in the scaling of delocalization and stability thresholds of $q$-breathers with the system size: there exists a critical index $\gamma^*=6$, below which both thresholds (in nonlinearity strength) tend to zero, and diverge when above. We also demonstrate that this critical index value is decisive for the presence or absense of thermalization. For a generic interaction potential the mode space localized dynamics is determined only by the three lowest order nonlinear terms in the power series expansion.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Infrared Studies of the Onset of Conductivity in Ultra-Thin Pb Films

In this paper we report the first experimental measurement of the infrared conductivity of ultra-thin quenched-condensed Pb films. For dc sheet resistances such that $\omega \tau \ll 1$ the ac conductance increases with frequency but is in disagreement with the predictions of weak localization. We attribute this behavior to the effects of an inhomogeneous granular structure of these films, which is manifested at the very small probing scale of infrared measurements. Our data are consistent with predictions of two-dimensional percolation theory.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letter

Anisotropic Magnetoconductance in Quench-Condensed Ultrathin Beryllium Films

Near the superconductor-insulator (S-I) transition, quench-condensed ultrathin Be films show a large magnetoconductance which is highly anisotropic in the direction of the applied field. Film conductance can drop as much as seven orders of magnitude in a weak perpendicular field (< 1 T), but is insensitive to a parallel field in the same field range. We believe that this negative magnetoconductance is due to the field de-phasing of the superconducting pair wavefunction. This idea enables us to extract the finite superconducting phase coherence length in nearly superconducting films. Our data indicate that this local phase coherence persists even in highly insulating films in the vicinity of the S-I transition.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure RevTex, Typos Correcte

Nonlinear damping in mechanical resonators based on graphene and carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes and graphene allow fabricating outstanding nanomechanical resonators. They hold promise for various scientific and technological applications, including sensing of mass, force, and charge, as well as the study of quantum phenomena at the mesoscopic scale. Here, we have discovered that the dynamics of nanotube and graphene resonators is in fact highly exotic. We propose an unprecedented scenario where mechanical dissipation is entirely determined by nonlinear damping. As a striking consequence, the quality factor Q strongly depends on the amplitude of the motion. This scenario is radically different from that of other resonators, whose dissipation is dominated by a linear damping term. We believe that the difference stems from the reduced dimensionality of carbon nanotubes and graphene. Besides, we exploit the nonlinear nature of the damping to improve the figure of merit of nanotube/graphene resonators.Comment: main text with 4 figures, supplementary informatio

Nonlinear response of a driven vibrating nanobeam in the quantum regime

We analytically investigate the nonlinear response of a damped doubly clamped nanomechanical beam under static longitudinal compression which is excited to transverse vibrations. Starting from a continuous elasticity model for the beam, we consider the dynamics of the beam close to the Euler buckling instability. There, the fundamental transverse mode dominates and a quantum mechanical time-dependent effective single particle Hamiltonian for its amplitude can be derived. In addition, we include the influence of a dissipative Ohmic or super-Ohmic environment. In the rotating frame, a Markovian master equation is derived which includes also the effect of the time-dependent driving in a non-trivial way. The quasienergies of the pure system show multiple avoided level crossings corresponding to multiphonon transitions in the resonator. Around the resonances, the master equation is solved analytically using Van Vleck perturbation theory. Their lineshapes are calculated resulting in simple expressions. We find the general solution for the multiple multiphonon resonances and, most interestingly, a bath-induced transition from a resonant to an antiresonant behavior of the nonlinear response.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, submitted to NJ

Tunneling through a multigrain system: deducing the sample topology from the nonlinear conductance

We study a current transport through a system of a few grains connected with tunneling links. The exact solution is given for an arbitrarily connected double-grain system with a shared gate in the framework of the orthodox model. The obtained result is generalized for multigrain systems with strongly different tunneling resistances. We analyse the large-scale nonlinear conductance and demonstrate how the sample topology can be unambiguously deduced from the spectroscopy pattern (differential conductance versus gate-bias plot). We present experimental data for a multigrain sample and reconstruct the sample topology. A simple selection rule is formulated to distinguish samples with spectral patterns free from spurious disturbance caused by recharging of some grains nearby. As an example, we demonstrate experimental data with additional peaks in the spectroscopy pattern, which can not be attributed to coupling to additional grains. The described approach can be used to judge the sample topology when it is not guaranteed by fabrication and direct imaging is not possible.Comment: 13 pages (including 8 figures

Stamp transferred suspended graphene mechanical resonators for radio-frequency electrical readout

We present a simple micromanipulation technique to transfer suspended graphene flakes onto any substrate and to assemble them with small localized gates into mechanical resonators. The mechanical motion of the graphene is detected using an electrical, radio-frequency (RF) reflection readout scheme where the time-varying graphene capacitor reflects a RF carrier at f=5-6 GHz producing modulation sidebands at f +/- fm. A mechanical resonance frequency up to fm=178 MHz is demonstrated. We find both hardening/softening Duffing effects on different samples, and obtain a critical amplitude of ~40 pm for the onset of nonlinearity in graphene mechanical resonators. Measurements of the quality factor of the mechanical resonance as a function of DC bias voltage Vdc indicate that dissipation due to motion-induced displacement currents in graphene electrode is important at high frequencies and large Vdc

Electron pumping in graphene mechanical resonators

The combination of high frequency vibrations and metallic transport in graphene makes it a unique material for nano-electromechanical devices. In this letter, we show that graphene-based nano-electromechanical devices are extremely well suited for charge pumping, due to the sensitivity of its transport coefficients to perturbations in electrostatic potential and mechanical deformations, with the potential for novel small scale devices with useful applications

Plasmonic atoms and plasmonic molecules

The proposed paradigm of plasmonic atoms and plasmonic molecules allows one to describe and predict the strongly localized plasmonic oscillations in the clusters of nanoparticles and some other nanostructures in uniform way. Strongly localized plasmonic molecules near the contacting surfaces might become the fundamental elements (by analogy with Lego bricks) for a construction of fully integrated opto-electronic nanodevices of any complexity and scale of integration.Comment: 30 pages, 16 figure