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Large oscillations of the magnetoresistance in nanopatterned high-temperature superconducting films

Nature Nanotechnology volume 5, pages 516–519 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Measurements on nanoscale structures constructed from high-temperature superconductors are expected to shed light on the origin of superconductivity in these materials1,2,3,4,5,6,7. To date, loops made from these compounds have had sizes of the order of hundreds of nanometres8–11. Here, we report the results of measurements on loops of La1.84Sr0.16CuO4, a high-temperature superconductor that loses its resistance to electric currents when cooled below ∼38 K, with dimensions down to tens of nanometres. We observe oscillations in the resistance of the loops as a function of the magnetic flux through the loops. The oscillations have a period of h/2e, and their amplitude is much larger than the amplitude of the resistance oscillations expected from the Little–Parks effect12,13. Moreover, unlike Little–Parks oscillations, which are caused by periodic changes in the superconducting transition temperature, the oscillations we observe are caused by periodic changes in the interaction between thermally excited moving vortices and the oscillating persistent current induced in the loops. However, despite the enhanced amplitude of these oscillations, we have not detected oscillations with a period of h/e, as recently predicted for nanoscale loops of superconductors with d-wave symmetry1,2,3,4,5,6, or with a period of h/4e, as predicted for superconductors that exhibit stripes7.

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Figure 1: Patterned superconducting film.
Figure 2: Magnetoresistance oscillations.
Figure 3: Comparison of measured and calculated magnetoresitance oscillations.
Figure 4: Periodicity of the magnetoresistance oscillations.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank A. Frydman, B. Ya. Shapira, B. Rosenstein, E. Zeldov, Y. Oreg, O. Pelleg, A. Bollinger, A. Gozar, Z. Radović and V. Vinokur for helpful discussions. Y.Y. and A.S. acknowledge support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through the Deutsch–Israelische Projektkooperation (grant no. 563363). I.S. thanks the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology for an Eshkol scholarship. The work at BNL was supported by the US Department of Energy (contract no. MA-509-MACA).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Institute of Superconductivity and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 52900, Israel

    Ilya Sochnikov, Avner Shaulov & Yosef Yeshurun

  2. Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, 11973-5000, New York, USA

    Gennady Logvenov & Ivan Božović

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  1. Ilya Sochnikov
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  2. Avner Shaulov
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Contributions

G.L and I.B. synthesized and characterized the superconducting films. I.S. designed and made the patterns, performed the magnetoresistance measurements and analysed the data. All authors contributed to the theoretical interpretation and were involved in the completion of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ilya Sochnikov.

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Sochnikov, I., Shaulov, A., Yeshurun, Y. et al. Large oscillations of the magnetoresistance in nanopatterned high-temperature superconducting films. Nature Nanotech 5, 516–519 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2010.111

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