Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Stimulated quantum phase slips

Stimulated quantum phase slips from weak electromagnetic radiations in superconducting nanowires,
arxiv.org:1507.02725
Amir Jafari-Salim, Amin Eftekharian, A. Hamed Majedi, Mohammad H. Ansari


This paper is on radiation-assisted quantum phase slip. We study the rate of quantum phase slips in an ultranarrow superconducting nanowire exposed to weak electromagnetic radiations. The superconductor is in the dirty limit close to the superconducting-insulating transition, where fluxoids move in strong dissipation.

We use a semiclassical approach and show that external weak radiation exposed to an ultranarrow superconducting nanowire at low temperature stimulates a significant enhancement in the probability of quantum phase slips in the wire. This can help to outline a new type of detector for microwave to submillimetre radiations based on stimulated quantum phase slip phenomenon.