Microscopic Oscillations in the Quantum Nucleation of Vortices Subject to Periodic Pinning Potential in a Thin Superconductor

TL;DR

This paper develops a quantum theory describing how supercurrents decay via vortex pair nucleation in thin superconductors with periodic pinning, revealing oscillations in nucleation rates linked to pinning periodicity.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum electrodynamics framework for vortex nucleation in superconductors with dissipation and periodic pinning, highlighting oscillatory behavior in nucleation rates.

Findings

Nucleation rate oscillates with current density due to pinning periodicity.

Remnant of dissipation-driven localization transition affects nucleation.

Predicted effects could be observed in real thin superconductors.

Abstract

We present a theory for the decay of a supercurrent through nucleation of vortex-antivortex pairs in a two-dimensional superconductor in the presence of dissipation and of a periodic pinning potential. Through a powerful quantum electrodynamics formulation of the problem we show that the nucleation rate develops oscillations in its current-density dependence which are connected to the pinning periodicity. A remnant of the dissipation-driven localization transition is present, and an estimate of the nucleation rate suggests that these effects might be observable in real thin superconductors.