Superconductor–insulator transition in capacitively coupled superconducting nanowires

Abstract

We investigate superconductor–insulator quantum phase transitions in ultrathin capacitively coupled superconducting nanowires with proliferating quantum phase slips. We derive a set of coupled Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless-like renormalization group equations demonstrating that interaction between quantum phase slips in one of the wires gets modified due to the effect of plasma modes propagating in another wire. As a result, the superconductor–insulator phase transition in each of the wires is controlled not only by its own parameters but also by those of the neighboring wire as well as by mutual capacitance. We argue that superconducting nanowires with properly chosen parameters may turn insulating once they are brought sufficiently close to each other.

Keywords

• quantum phase slips
• quantum phase transitions
• rg equations