Superconducting Quantum Interference in Fractal Percolation Films. Problem of 1/f Noise

TL;DR

This paper investigates fractal patterns and 1/f noise in superconducting Sn-Ge thin films near the percolation threshold, proposing a universal mechanism involving fractal transformations of magnetic fluctuations.

Contribution

It introduces a new universal mechanism for 1/f noise based on fractal transformation of magnetic fluctuations in superconducting films.

Findings

Voltage oscillations exhibit fractal patterns.

Voltage fluctuations follow power-law spectra.

Fractal analysis shows fluctuations are not from a complex dynamic system.

Abstract

An oscillatory magnetic field dependence of the DC voltage is observed when a low-frequency current flows through superconducting Sn-Ge thin-film composites near the percolation threshold. The paper also studies the experimental realisations of temporal voltage fluctuations in these films. Both the structure of the voltage oscillations against the magnetic field and the time series of the electric "noise" possess a fractal pattern. With the help of the fractal analysis procedure, the fluctuations observed have been shown to be neither a noise with a large number of degrees of freedom, nor the realisations of a well defined dynamic system. On the contrary the model of voltage oscillations induced by the weak fluctuations of a magnetic field of arbitrary nature gives the most appropriate description of the phenomenon observed. The imaging function of such a transformation possesses a fractal nature, thus leading to power-law spectra of voltage fluctuations even for the simplest types of magnetic fluctuations including the monochromatic ones. Thus, the paper suggests a new universal mechanism of a "1/f noise" origin. It consists in a passive transformation of any natural fluctuations with a fractal-type transformation function.