Superconductivity from a melted insulator in Josephson junction arrays

S. Mukhopadhyay; Jorden Senior; J. Saez-Mollejo; D. Puglia; M. Zemlicka; J.M. Fink; A.P. Higginbotham

doi:10.1038/s41567-023-02161-w

Superconductivity from a melted insulator in Josephson junction arrays

S. Mukhopadhyay
, Jorden Senior
, J. Saez-Mollejo
, D. Puglia
, M. Zemlicka
, J.M. Fink
, A.P. Higginbotham^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Not published at VTT

Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Arrays of Josephson junctions are governed by a competition between superconductivity and repulsive Coulomb interactions, and are expected to exhibit diverging low-temperature resistance when interactions exceed a critical level. Here we report a study of the transport and microwave response of Josephson arrays with interactions exceeding this level. Contrary to expectations, we observe that the array resistance drops dramatically as the temperature is decreased—reminiscent of superconducting behaviour—and then saturates at low temperature. Applying a magnetic field, we eventually observe a transition to a highly resistive regime. These observations can be understood within a theoretical picture that accounts for the effect of thermal fluctuations on the insulating phase. On the basis of the agreement between experiment and theory, we suggest that apparent superconductivity in our Josephson arrays arises from melting the zero-temperature insulator.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1630–1635
Number of pages	6
Journal	Nature Physics
Volume	19
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-02161-w
Publication status	Published - 10 Aug 2023
MoE publication type	A1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

This research was supported by the Scientific Service Units of IST Austria through resources provided by the MIBA Machine Shop and the Nanofabrication Facility. Work supported by the Austrian FWF grant P33692-N (S.M., J.S. and A.P.H.), the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 754411 (J.S.) and a NOMIS foundation research grant (J.M.F. and A.P.H.).

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abstract = "Arrays of Josephson junctions are governed by a competition between superconductivity and repulsive Coulomb interactions, and are expected to exhibit diverging low-temperature resistance when interactions exceed a critical level. Here we report a study of the transport and microwave response of Josephson arrays with interactions exceeding this level. Contrary to expectations, we observe that the array resistance drops dramatically as the temperature is decreased—reminiscent of superconducting behaviour—and then saturates at low temperature. Applying a magnetic field, we eventually observe a transition to a highly resistive regime. These observations can be understood within a theoretical picture that accounts for the effect of thermal fluctuations on the insulating phase. On the basis of the agreement between experiment and theory, we suggest that apparent superconductivity in our Josephson arrays arises from melting the zero-temperature insulator.",

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Superconductivity from a melted insulator in Josephson junction arrays

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