Current Assisted, Thermally Activated Flux Liberation in Ultrathin Nanopatterned NbN Superconducting Meander Structures
2010
We present results from an extensive study of fluctuation phenomena in superconducting nanowires made
from sputtered NbN. Nanoscale wires were fabricated in form of a meander and operated at a constant
temperature T0.4Tc0. The superconducting state is driven close to the electronic phase transition by a high
bias current near the critical one. Fluctuations of sufficient strength temporarily drive a section of the meander
structure into the normal-conducting state, which can be registered as a voltage pulse of nanosecond duration.
We considered three different models vortex-antivortex pairs, vortex edge barriers, and phase-slip centers to
explain the experimental data. Only thermally excited vortices, either via unbinding of vortex-antivortex pairs
or vortices overcoming the edge barrier, lead to a satisfactory and consistent description for all measurements.
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