Anomalous metals: from "failed superconductor" to "failed insulator"

TL;DR

This paper investigates anomalous metallic behaviors near a magnetic-field-tuned superconductor-insulator transition in a 2D composite, revealing resistivity saturation and the roles of Josephson junctions, phase fluctuations, and charge fluctuations.

Contribution

It introduces a model explaining anomalous metallic states via macroscopic quantum tunneling and duality concepts in a disordered Josephson junction network.

Findings

Resistivity saturation occurs on both sides of the transition.

Self-duality influences the transition and residual metallic behavior.

Phase and charge fluctuations explain the failure of superconductivity and insulation.

Abstract

Resistivity saturation is found on both superconducting and insulating sides of an "avoided" magnetic-field-tuned superconductor-to-insulator transition (H-SIT) in a two-dimensional In/InO$_x$ composite, where the anomalous metallic behaviors cut off conductivity or resistivity divergence in the zero-temperature limit. The granular morphology of the material implies a system of Josephson junctions (JJ) with a broad distribution of Josephson coupling E$_J$ and charging energy E$_C$ , with a H-SIT determined by the competition between E$_J$ and E$_C$ . By virtue of self-duality across the true H-SIT, we invoke macroscopic quantum tunneling effects to explain the temperature-independent resistance where the "failed superconductor" side is a consequence of phase fluctuations and the "failed insulator" side results from charge fluctuations. While true self-duality is lost in the avoided transition, its vestiges are argued to persist, owing to the incipient duality of the percolative nature of the dissipative path in the underlying random JJ system.