Dissipation in Thin Superconducting Current Biased Films Due to Vortex Motion PDF Download

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Recently, the problem of dissipation in thin superconducting films with thickness d on the order of the coherence length [zeta], and width [omega] much narrower than the Pearl length, [Lambda]” [omega]” [zeta], was discussed as the main cause for the behavior of I-V characteristics observed in thin high-temperature superconducting films. In thin and narrow films or strips with width w” [zeta] the barrier for phase slips by creation of temporary normal regions across the entire film width is too big, thus phase slips become highly improbable. Instead, we consider a vortex crossing the strip from one edge to the other, perpendicular to the bias current, as the dominant mechanism for generalized phase slips resulting in detectable voltage pulses. We derive the rate of vortex crossings using the general theory of transition rates between metastable states. In mean field theory, the saddle point solution of the rate equation gives the vortex position inside the strip, where the kinetic energy of supercurrents is maximum. However, the free energy barrier derived in such an approach is strongly renormalized by superconducting fluctuations and this effect was not accounted for previously. They drastically reduce the rate of vortex crossings and, consequently, dissipation. We present results for the amplitude and duration of voltage pulses induced by vortex motion and their consequences on I-V characteristics, when heating due to vortex crossings is negligible. We found ohmic behavior at low bias currents, power law behavior at intermediate currents and exponential I-V characteristics at currents close to the critical one. The impact of vortex motion in superconducting strips on the observation of so-called dark counts (voltage pulses) in superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors is discussed.