Spontaneous voltage peaks in superconducting Nb channels without engineered asymmetry

Rectification effects in solid-state devices are a consequence of nonreciprocal transport properties. This phenomenon is usually observed in systems with broken inversion symmetry. In most instances, nonreciprocal transport arises in the presence of an applied magnetic field and the rectified signal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2023-09
Main Authors: Sengupta, Shamashis, Monteverde, Miguel, Loucif, Sara, Pallier, Florian, Dumoulin, Louis, Marrache-Kikuchi, Claire
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asymmetry
Channels
Critical temperature
Electric potential
Magnetic fields
Solid state devices
Superconductivity
Symmetry
Transport phenomena
Transport properties
Voltage
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Summary:Rectification effects in solid-state devices are a consequence of nonreciprocal transport properties. This phenomenon is usually observed in systems with broken inversion symmetry. In most instances, nonreciprocal transport arises in the presence of an applied magnetic field and the rectified signal has an antisymmetric dependence on the field. We have observed rectification of environmental electromagnetic fluctuations in plain Nb channels without any asymmetry in design, leading to spontaneous voltage peaks at the superconducting transition. The signal is symmetric in the magnetic field and appears even without an applied field at the critical temperature. This is indicative of an unconventional mechanism of nonreciprocal transport resulting from a spontaneous breaking of inversion symmetry.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2309.02146