title: Size dependent breakdown of superconductivity in ultranarrow nanowires.
abstract: Below a certain temperature T(c) (typically cryogenic), some materials lose their electric resistance R entering a superconducting state. Following the general trend toward a large scale integration of a greater number of electronic components, it is desirable to use superconducting elements in order to minimize heat dissipation. It is expected that the basic property of a superconductor, i.e., dissipationless electric current, will be preserved at reduced scales required by modern nanoelectronics. Unfortunately, there are indications that for a certain critical size limit of the order of approximately 10 nm, below which a "superconducting" nanowire is no longer a superconductor in a sense that it acquires a finite resistance even at temperatures close to absolute zero. In the present paper we report experimental evidence for a superconductivity breakdown in ultranarrow quasi-1D aluminum nanowires.
authors.affiliation: NanoScience Center, Department of Physics, University of Jyväskylä, PB 35, 40014, Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Maciek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zgirski
authors.forename: Karri-Pekka
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Riikonen
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Touboltsev
authors.forename: Konstantin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Arutyunov
mesh_terms: D000535:Aluminum; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D017097:Electric Impedance; D004560:Electricity; D004581:Electronics; D006358:Hot Temperature; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D055585:Physical Phenomena; D010825:Physics; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D000535:Aluminum