Influence of high magnetic fields on superconducting transition of one-dimensional Nb and MoGe nanowires

TL;DR

This study investigates how strong magnetic fields influence the superconducting transition in ultra-thin Nb and MoGe nanowires, confirming the applicability of LAMH theory and analyzing pair-breaking effects.

Contribution

It demonstrates the validity of LAMH theory across wide magnetic fields and provides a quantitative analysis of pair-breaking effects on $T_c$ in nanowires.

Findings

LAMH theory describes resistance over eleven orders of magnitude.

Critical temperature $T_c$ aligns with pair-breaking theory.

Spin-orbit scattering time matches theoretical estimates.

Abstract

The effects of strong magnetic field on superconducting Nb and MoGe nanowires with diameter $\sim10$ nm have been studied. We have found that the Langer-Ambegaokar-McCumber-Halperin (LAMH) theory of thermally activated phase slips is applicable in a wide range of magnetic fields and describes well the temperature dependence of the wire resistance, over eleven orders of magnitude. The field dependence of the critical temperature, $T_{c}$, extracted from the LAMH fits is in good quantitative agreement with the theory of pair-breaking perturbations that takes into account both spin and orbital contributions. The extracted spin-orbit scattering time agrees with an estimate $\tau_{so}\simeq \tau(\hbar c/ Ze^{2})^{4}$, where $\tau$ is the elastic scattering time and $Z$ is the atomic number.