Low-field magnetoresponse of strongly disordered two-dimensional superconductors

S. Sankar; V. Tripathi

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.94.054520

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Low-field magnetoresponse of strongly disordered two-dimensional superconductors

S. Sankar, V. Tripathi

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.94.054520 · Physical Review B

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Abstract

Weak magnetic fields significantly affect the properties of strongly disordered superconductors through diamagnetic orbital shrinking as well as geometric phase frustration effects. The relative importance of these orbital effects is analyzed for thin films in physical regimes dominated by a Coulomb blockade, thermal phase fluctuations, and phase frustration, respectively, using phenomenological and replica field theory approaches. As an important outcome, we obtain the field dependences of superfluid stiffness and resistance, and we show that they can be used to distinguish between phase frustration and diamagnetic shrinking effects. We also find that even though highly disordered films may never become superconducting, their inhomogeneous structure leaves a distinct signature on the magnetoresistance. The predicted low-field magnetoresistance is in very good accord with experiment.