Boundary effect on superconductivity in long single-crystal superconducting nanowires

✍ Scribed by Haidong Liu; Zuxin Ye; Zhiping Luo; K.D.D. Rathnayaka; Wenhao Wu

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 327 KB
• Volume: 468
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0921-4534
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physc.2007.08.029

✦ Synopsis

We fabricate single-crystal Pb, Sn, and Zn nanowires, of length 6 or 60 lm and diameter 30-250 nm, using an in situ template-based electrochemical method. In this approach, a single nanowire is formed in contact with a pair of bulk film electrodes of Au, Sn, or Pb. We observe that, with superconducting electrodes having a higher critical temperature T c , superconductivity is induced in Sn and Zn nanowires at the T c of the electrodes for nanowires as long as 60 lm. With Au electrodes, superconductivity is suppressed completely in 6 lm-long nanowires and partially in 60 lm-long nanowires. Based on transmission electron microscopy studies, the nanowires are single crystalline. Analysis of the temperature dependence of the normalized resistance suggests that the residual-resistance-ratio plays an important role in the observed anomalous long-range proximity effect.