Superconductors for ultra-fast vortex motion and single-photon detectors

03.07.2020

A new superconducting system in which magnetic flux quanta can move at velocities of 10-15 km/s has been discovered by a joint team from Frankfurt, Nizhny Novgorod, Kharkiv, and Vienna. The results are published in Nature Communications

The new superconductor exhibits a rare combination of properties – high structural uniformity, large critical current and fast relaxation of heated electrons. The combination of these properties ensures that the phenomenon of flux-flow instability – abrupt transition of a superconductor from the low-resistive to the normal conducting state – takes place at sufficiently large transport currents.

The Nb-C superconductor was fabricated by focused ion beam induced deposition in the group of Prof. Michael Huth at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. In addition to ultra-fast vortex velocities in Nb-C, the direct-write nanofabrication technology allows one to fabricate complex-shaped nano-architectures and 3D fluxonic circuits with intricate interconnectivity which may find application in quantum information processing.

You can read the full press release HERE.

Ultra-fast vortex motion in a direct-write Nb-C superconductor
O. V. Dobrovolskiy, D. Yu. Vodolazov, F. Porrati, R. Sachser, V. M. Bevz, M. Yu. Mikhailov, A. V. Chumak, and M. Huth
Nat. Commun. 11, 3291 (2020)

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