Size Dependent Breakdown of Superconductivity in Ultranarrow Nanowires

TL;DR

This paper provides experimental evidence that superconductivity in aluminum nanowires breaks down below a critical size of approximately 10 nm, challenging assumptions about nanoscale superconducting behavior.

Contribution

The study demonstrates size-dependent superconductivity breakdown in ultranarrow aluminum nanowires, revealing a critical dimension where superconductivity ceases at cryogenic temperatures.

Findings

Superconductivity persists down to ~10 nm in aluminum nanowires.

Superconductivity breaks down below the critical size of ~10 nm.

Finite resistance observed at temperatures close to absolute zero in ultranarrow wires.

Abstract

Below a certain temperature Tc (typically cryogenic), some materials lose their electric resistance R entering a superconducting state. Folowing the general trend toward a large scale integration of a greater number of electronic components, it is desirable to use superconducting elements in order to minimize heat dissipation. It is expected that the basic property of a superconductor, i.e. dissipationless electric current, will be preserved at reduced scales required by modern nanoelectronics. Unfortunately, there are indications that for a certain critical size limit of the order of 10 nm, below which a "superconducting" wire is no longer a superconductor in a sense that it acquires a finite resistance even at temperatures close to absolute zero. In the present paper we report an experimental evidence for a superconductivity breakdown in ultranarrow quasi-1D aluminum nanowires.