Microscopic model for multiple flux transitions in mesoscopic superconducting loops

¹ Departement Fysica, Universiteit Antwerpen - Groenenborgerlaan 171 B-2020 Antwerpen, Belgium
² Institute for Physics of Microstructures, Russian Academy of Sciences 603950 Nizhny Novgorod, GSP-105, Russia
³ University of Jyväskylä, Department of Physics, Nano Science Centre PB 35, 40014 Jyväskylä, Finland

Received: 13 February 2006
Accepted: 31 May 2006

Abstract

A microscopic model is constructed which is able to describe multiple magnetic flux transitions as observed in recent ultra-low temperature tunnel experiments on an aluminum superconducting ring with normal-metal–insulator–superconductor junctions (Phys. Rev. B, 70 (2004) 064514). The unusual multiple flux quantum transitions are explained by the formation of metastable states with large vorticity. Essential in our description is the modification of the pairing potential and the superconducting density of states by a sub-critical value of the persistent current which modulates the measured tunnel current. We also speculate on the importance of the injected non-equilibrium quasiparticles on the stability of these metastable states.