2,267 research outputs found
Persistent Currents in Helical Structures
Recent discovery of mesoscopic electronic structures, in particular the
carbon nanotubes, made necessary an investigation of what effect may helical
symmetry of the conductor (metal or semiconductor) have on the persistent
current oscillations. We investigate persistent currents in helical structures
which are non-decaying in time, not requiring a voltage bias, dissipationless
stationary flow of electrons in a normal-metallic or semiconducting cylinder or
circular wire of mesoscopic dimension. In the presence of magnetic flux along
the toroidal structure, helical symmetry couples circular and longitudinal
currents to each other. Our calculations suggest that circular persistent
currents in these structures have two components with periods and
( is an integer specific to any geometry). However, resultant
circular persistent current oscillations have period.
\pacs{PACS:}PACS:73.23.-bComment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Submitted to PR
Non-adiabatic Josephson Dynamics in Junctions with in-Gap Quasiparticles
Conventional models of Josephson junction dynamics rely on the absence of low
energy quasiparticle states due to a large superconducting gap. With this
assumption the quasiparticle degrees of freedom become "frozen out" and the
phase difference becomes the only free variable, acting as a fictitious
particle in a local in time Josephson potential related to the adiabatic and
non-dissipative supercurrent across the junction. In this article we develop a
general framework to incorporate the effects of low energy quasiparticles
interacting non-adiabatically with the phase degree of freedom. Such
quasiparticle states exist generically in constriction type junctions with high
transparency channels or resonant states, as well as in junctions of
unconventional superconductors. Furthermore, recent experiments have revealed
the existence of spurious low energy in-gap states in tunnel junctions of
conventional superconductors - a system for which the adiabatic assumption
typically is assumed to hold. We show that the resonant interaction with such
low energy states rather than the Josephson potential defines nonlinear
Josephson dynamics at small amplitudes.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur
Electron-electron interactions in antidot-based Aharonov-Bohm interferometers
We present a microscopic picture of quantum transport in quantum antidots in
the quantum Hall regime taking electron interactions into account. We discuss
the edge state structure, energy level evolution, charge quantization and
linear-response conductance as the magnetic field or gate voltage is varied.
Particular attention is given to the conductance oscillations due to
Aharonov-Bohm interference and their unexpected periodicity. To explain the
latter we propose the mechanisms of scattering by point defects and Coulomb
blockade tunneling. They are supported by self-consistent calculations in the
Hartree approximation, which indicate pinning and correlation of the
single-particle states at the Fermi energy as well as charge oscillation when
antidot-bound states depopulate. We have also found interesting phenomena of
anti-resonance reflection of the Fano type.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure
Quantum phase slips in the presence of finite-range disorder
To study the effect of disorder on quantum phase slips (QPS) in
superconducting wires, we consider the plasmon-only model where disorder can be
incorporated into a first-principles instanton calculation. We consider weak
but general finite-range disorder and compute the formfactor in the QPS rate
associated with momentum transfer. We find that the system maps onto
dissipative quantum mechanics, with the dissipative coefficient controlled by
the wave (plasmon) impedance Z of the wire and with a superconductor-insulator
transition at Z=6.5 kOhm. We speculate that the system will remain in this
universality class after resistive effects at the QPS core are taken into
account.Comment: 4 pages, as accepted at Phys. Rev. Letter
Fiske Steps and Abrikosov Vortices in Josephson Tunnel Junctions
We present a theoretical and experimental study of the Fiske resonances in
the current-voltage characteristics of "small" Josephson junctions with
randomly distributed misaligned Abrikosov vortices. We obtained that in the
presence of Abrikosov vortices the resonant interaction of electromagnetic
waves, excited inside a junction, with the ac Josephson current manifests
itself by Fiske steps in a current-voltage characteristics even in the absence
of external magnetic field. We found that the voltage positions of the Fiske
steps are determined by a junction size, but the Fiske step magnitudes depend
both on the density of trapped Abrikosov vortices and on their misalignment
parameter. We measured the magnetic field dependence of both the amplitude of
the first Fiske step and the Josephson critical current of low-dissipative
small based Josephson tunnel junctions with artificially introduced
Abrikosov vortices. A strong decay of the Josephson critical current and a weak
non-monotonic decrease of the first Fiske step amplitude on the Abrikosov
vortex density were observed. The experimentally observed dependencies are well
described by the developed theory.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Physical Review
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