TY  - JOUR
AU  - Sahu, Mitrabhanu
AU  - Bae, Myung-Ho
AU  - Rogachev, Andrey
AU  - Pekker, David
AU  - Wei, Tzu-Chieh
AU  - Shah, Nayana
AU  - Goldbart, Paul M.
AU  - Bezryadin, Alexey
PY  - 2009
DA  - 2009//
TI  - Individual topological tunnelling events of a quantum field probed through their macroscopic consequences
T2  - Nature Phys.
JO  - Nature Phys.
SP  - 503
EP  - 508
VL  - 5
KW  - phase slips
KW  - superconducting nanowires
AB  - Phase slips are topological fluctuations that carry the superconducting order-parameter field between distinct current-carrying states. Owing to these phase slips, superconducting nanowires acquire electrical resistance. In such wires, it is well known that at higher temperatures phase slips occur through the process of thermal barrier-crossing by the order-parameter field. At low temperatures, the general expectation is that phase slips should proceed through quantum tunnelling events, which are known as quantum phase slips. However, resistive measurements have produced evidence both for and against the occurrence of quantum phase slips. Here, we report evidence for the observation of individual quantum phase-slip events in homogeneous ultranarrow wires at high bias currents. We accomplish this through measurements of the distribution of switching currents for which the width exhibits a rather counter-intuitive, monotonic increase with decreasing temperature. Importantly, measurements show that in nanowires with larger critical currents, quantum fluctuations dominate thermal fluctuations up to higher temperatures.
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1038/NPHYS1276
DO  - 10.1038/NPHYS1276
N1  - Recommended by Klapwijk
ID  - Sahu_etal2009
ER  -