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Nature 425, 133-136 (11 September 2003) | doi:10.1038/425133a

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Condensed-matter physics: Vortices and hearts

John Clarke1

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A single vortex of flux, formed inside a superconducting Josephson junction, has been detected undergoing quantum tunnelling — a feature that could be developed into a quantum bit.

Vortices are ubiquitous — from the mythical whirlpool of Charybdis in the Strait of Messina, to the putative cosmic strings that were frozen into space-time shortly after the Big Bang. In superconductors, too, swirling currents generate vortices of flux.

  1. Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, and the Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
    Email: jclarke@physics.berkeley.edu