Resistance Anomaly in Disordered Superconducting Films

TL;DR

This paper reports a resistance anomaly in disordered superconducting films with nanoscale holes, caused by dissipation-induced granularity and inhomogeneous temperature distribution, leading to resistance peaks above normal-state levels.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of dissipation-induced granularity as a cause for resistance anomalies in disordered superconducting films with nanoscale holes.

Findings

Resistance peaks up to 2% above normal-state resistance.

Resistance anomaly linked to dissipation-induced granularity.

Inhomogeneous temperature distribution affects superconducting properties.

Abstract

We report on a resistance anomaly in disordered superconducting films containing arrays of irregularly distributed nanoscale holes. At high driving currents, peaks appear in the resistance as a function of temperature, with peak values up to 2% above the classic normal-state resistance. We attribute the observed resistance anomaly to dissipation-induced granularity which enhances the contributions from fluctuation-induced reduction of the density of states of the quasiparticles. The granular feature of a disordered superconducting film originates from the inhomogeneous temperature distribution caused by the variation of the local dissipation and/or heat transfer.