PT Journal
AU Shah, N
   Pekker, D
   Goldbart, PM
TI Inherent stochasticity of superconductor-resistor switching behavior in nanowires
SO Phys. Rev. Lett.
JI Phys. Rev. Lett.
PY 2008
BP 207001(1 to 4)
VL 101
DI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.207001
DE superconducting nanowires; phase-slip; self-heating effect; temperature profile
AB We study the stochastic dynamics of superconductive-resistive switching in hysteretic current-biased superconducting nanowires undergoing phase-slip fluctuations. We evaluate the mean switching time using the master-equation formalism, and hence obtain the distribution of switching currents. We find that as the temperature is reduced this distribution initially broadens; only at lower temperatures does it show the narrowing with cooling naively expected for phase slips that are thermally activated. We also find that although several phase-slip events are generally necessary to induce switching, there is an experimentally accessible regime of temperatures and currents for which just one single phase-slip event is sufficient to induce switching, via the local heating it causes.
ER