Magnetic field induced localization in a two-dimensional superconducting wire network

TL;DR

This paper presents experimental evidence of a magnetic field-induced localization phenomenon in a 2D superconducting wire network, affecting its critical current, transition temperature, and phase fluctuations.

Contribution

It reports the first experimental observation of magnetic field-induced localization in a 2D periodic superconducting structure, revealing new effects on superconducting properties.

Findings

Depression of critical current at half flux quantum

Reduction of transition temperature at specific magnetic flux

Enhanced phase fluctuations at the localization point

Abstract

We report transport measurements on superconducting wire networks which provide the first experimental evidence of a new localization phenomenon induced by magnetic field on a 2D periodic structure. In the case of a superconducting wave function this phenomenon manifests itself as a depression of the network critical current and of the superconducting transition temperature at a half magnetic flux quantum per tile. In addition, the strong broadening of the resistive transition observed at this field is consistent with enhanced phase fluctuations due to this localization mechanism.