Field-Tuned Superconductor-Insulator Transition in BaPb1-xBixO3

TL;DR

This paper investigates a field-tuned superconductor-insulator transition in BaPb$_{1-x}$Bi$_x$O$_3$, revealing complex nanostructures and critical scaling behavior, but no fully satisfactory theoretical explanation.

Contribution

It reports the observation of a field-tuned superconductor-insulator transition in BaPb$_{1-x}$Bi$_x$O$_3$ and analyzes its phenomenology with experimental and theoretical approaches.

Findings

Observation of a temperature-independent crossing point in magnetoresistance.

Scaling behavior consistent with a quantum phase transition.

Complex nanostructure comprising tetragonal and orthorhombic phases.

Abstract

BaPb$_{1-x}$Bi$_x$O$_3$ is found to exhibit a field-tuned superconductor to insulator transition for Bi compositions 0.24 $\leq x \leq$ 0.29. The magnetoresistance of optimally doped samples manifests a temperature-independent crossing point and scaling of the form $\rho(T,H)=\rho_c F(|H-H_{c}|T^{-1/z\nu})$, where $H_c$ is the field determined by the temperature-independent crossing point, and $z\nu$ = 0.69 $\pm$ 0.03. High resolution transmission electron microscopy measurements reveal a complex intergrown nanostructure comprising tetragonal and orthorhombic polymorphs. Data are analyzed in terms of both a classical effective medium theory and a field-tuned quantum phase transition, neither of which provides a completely satisfactory explanation for this remarkable phenomenology.