title: Zurek-Kibble mechanism for the spontaneous vortex formation in Nb-Al/Al(ox)/Nb Josephson tunnel junctions: new theory and experiment.
abstract: New scaling behavior has been both predicted and observed in the spontaneous production of fluxons in quenched Nb-Al/Al(ox)/Nb annular Josephson tunnel junctions (JTJs) as a function of the quench time, tau(Q). The probability f(1) to trap a single defect during the normal-metal-superconductor phase transition clearly follows an allometric dependence on tau(Q) with a scaling exponent sigma = 0.5, as predicted from the Zurek-Kibble mechanism for realistic JTJs formed by strongly coupled superconductors. This definitive experiment replaces one reported by us earlier, in which an idealized model was used that predicted sigma = 0.25, commensurate with the then much poorer data. Our experiment remains the only condensed matter experiment to date to have measured a scaling exponent with any reliability.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Cibernetica del C.N.R., 80078, Pozzuoli, Italy and Unitá INFM-Dipartimento di Fisica, Universitá di Salerno, 84081 Baronissi, Italy. roberto@sa.infn.it
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Monaco
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mygind
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aaroe
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Rivers
authors.forename: V P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Koshelets