Summary
Confined condensate and flux in superconductors will be investigated at nanoscale by using various confinement patterns introduced artificially in the form of individual nanoplaquettes, their clusters and huge arrays. The dependence of the quantization effects on the confinement length scale and the geometry will be studied.
The boundary conditions, defining the confinement potential, will be tuned by using the hybrid superconductor/normal and superconductor/magnet interfaces in superconducting nanosystems.
The evolution of superconductivity at nanoscale will be revealed by determining the size dependence of the superconducting critical temperature and the gap in mass selected clusters and nanograins and also by studying superfluidity in different restricted geometries.
Flux confinement by magnetic dipoles and other periodic pinning arrays in superconductors will be investigated. By tailoring the confinement, physical properties of the confined condensates and flux can be designed starting from the fundamental Ginzburg-Landau equations (including their generalization to two component order parameter) and applying them to the real samples with the boundary conditions imposed at the physical sample’s boundary.
This research will reveal the fundamental relations between quantized confined states and the physical properties of the superconducting quantum coherent systems, which will be also of importance for other scientific fields (superconducting elements for quantum computing, nanoelectronics, hydrodynamics, liquid crystals, plasmas).
Keywords
superconductivity, quantum size effects, nanostructured materials, superconducting elements for quantum computing
Next events
The Vortex VI Conference will take place on 17-24 September 2009 in Rhodes.
Programme proposal
More information available at:
Duration
5 years: May 2007 - May 2012
