Superconductivity in Nanosystems: A Fruitful Path to New Phenomenology in Quantum Materials

TL;DR

This paper proposes that nanostructuring in superconductors induces new length scales and spatial patterns, unifying recent phenomenological observations and opening pathways for discovering novel behaviors in quantum materials.

Contribution

It offers a unifying framework explaining recent superconducting phenomenologies as effects of nanoengineering-induced length scales and spatial patterns.

Findings

Recent phenomenologies stem from nanoengineering of characteristic lengths.

Novel spatial patterns influence the coexistence of orders in superconductors.

Nanoengineering opens new avenues for discovering superconducting phenomena.

Abstract

We reason that various recent works by different groups reporting new phenomenologies in superconductors can be understood in a unifying way as instances of the appearance of novel competitions (or synergies in some cases) between the coexisting orders at play in superconducting materials. In particular, we argue that the main common feature of such phenomenologies is to have emerged from the induction, by nanoengineering, of novel characteristic lengths for each order, or of custom regular spatial patterns affecting them. We claim, thus, that a fruitful path to discover new phenomenology is opened by these and future searches of novel nanostructurations of superconducting materials.