Superconductivity in nanograins: smaller is different

Tuesday, January 25, 2011 – 3:15pm
Reiss 502
Antonio Garcia-Garcia
Lisbon University

In the first part of the colloquium I introduce the physics of superconducting nanograins: theories, experiments, their limitations and why we are still far from a good understanding of this problem. In the second part I will persuade the audience that there are reasons to be optimistic about the future of this field: recent developments make possible for the first time an accurate comparison between theory and experiments. This is paving the way to exploit quantum size effects in boosting superconductivity in nanograins. As an example I outline a simple theoretical model that provides a quantitative description of both the enhancement of superconductivity and the deviations from mean-field predictions recently observed in single isolated tin and lead nanograins.

Host: Marcos Rigol
Discussion Leader: Marcos Rigol