Gate voltage tuned quantum superconductor to insulator transition in an ultrathin bismuth film revisited

TL;DR

This study investigates the quantum superconductor-insulator transition in ultrathin bismuth films, revealing critical behavior, scaling laws, and the influence of disorder and variable-range hopping through analysis of resistance data.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of BKT critical behavior and quantum scaling in a gate-tuned 2D superconductor-insulator transition, highlighting the violation of hyperscaling and the role of disorder.

Findings

Identification of a limiting length preventing deep critical regime entry

Estimation of critical exponents zn=3/2, z=3, n=1/2

Consistency with variable-range hopping controlled insulating ground state

Abstract

We explore the implications of Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) critical behavior and variable-range hopping on the two dimensional (2D) quantum superconductor-insulator (QSI) transition driven by tuning the gate voltage. To illustrate the potential and the implications of this scenario we analyze sheet resistance data of Parendo et al. taken on a gate voltage tuned ultrathin amorphous bismuth film. The finite size scaling analysis of the BKT-transition uncovers a limiting length preventing the correlation length to diverge and to enter the critical regime deeply. Nevertheless the attained BKT critical regime reveals consistency with two parameter quantum scaling and an explicit quantum scaling function determined by the BKT correlation length. The two parameter scaling yields for the zero temperature critical exponents of the QSI-transition the estimates zn = 3/2, z = 3, and n = 1/2, revealing that hyperscaling is violated and in contrast to finite temperature disorder is relevant at zero temperature. Furthermore, zn = 3/2 is also consistent with the two variable quantum scaling form associated with a variable-range hopping controlled insulating ground state.