Peng Xiong, Ashwani Kumar, H. Jeffrey Gardner, and Liuqi Yu
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199592593
- eISBN:
- 9780191741050
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199592593.003.0014
- Subject:
- Physics, Theoretical, Computational, and Statistical Physics
The superconductor-insulator quantum phase transitions tuned by three independent parameters: disorder, paramagnetic impurity and perpendicular magnetic field, have been directly compared in the same ...
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The superconductor-insulator quantum phase transitions tuned by three independent parameters: disorder, paramagnetic impurity and perpendicular magnetic field, have been directly compared in the same homogeneous ultrathin a-Pb films. The magnetic impurity-tuned transition is characterized by progressive suppression of the critical temperature to zero and a continuous transition to a weakly insulating normal state with increasing impurity density. In all key aspects, the disorder-tuned transition closely resembles the magnetic impurity-tuned transition. The magnetic field-tuned transition appears qualitatively different, and in many aspects resembles the behavior of the superconductor-insulator transition in granular films which is a canonical example of a bosonic transition. In the critical region, the field-tuned transition exhibits transport behavior that suggests magnetic field induced mesoscale phase separation and presence of Cooper pairing in the insulating state.Less
The superconductor-insulator quantum phase transitions tuned by three independent parameters: disorder, paramagnetic impurity and perpendicular magnetic field, have been directly compared in the same homogeneous ultrathin a-Pb films. The magnetic impurity-tuned transition is characterized by progressive suppression of the critical temperature to zero and a continuous transition to a weakly insulating normal state with increasing impurity density. In all key aspects, the disorder-tuned transition closely resembles the magnetic impurity-tuned transition. The magnetic field-tuned transition appears qualitatively different, and in many aspects resembles the behavior of the superconductor-insulator transition in granular films which is a canonical example of a bosonic transition. In the critical region, the field-tuned transition exhibits transport behavior that suggests magnetic field induced mesoscale phase separation and presence of Cooper pairing in the insulating state.
