Destroying superconductivity in thin films with an electric field

TL;DR

This paper presents a Ginzburg-Landau model demonstrating that strong electric fields can induce a phase transition from superconducting to normal states in thin films, aligning well with recent experimental findings.

Contribution

The study introduces a theoretical framework showing electric fields can suppress superconductivity, accounting for experimental observations and proposing a new testing method.

Findings

Electric fields can drive a superconductor-to-normal transition.

Model aligns with recent experimental control of supercurrent.

Proposes superconductor-superconductor tunneling as a test.

Abstract

In this paper we use a Ginzburg-Landau approach to show that a suitably strong electric field can drive a phase transition from a superconductor to a normal metal. The transition is induced by taking into account corrections to the permittivity due to the superconductive gap and persists even when screening effects are considered. We test the model against recent experimental observations in which a strong electric field has been observed to control the supercurrent in superconducting thin films. We find excellent agreement with the experimental data and are able to explain several observed features. We additionally suggest a way to test our theoretical proposal via superconductor-superconductor electron tunneling.