Vortex Quantum Nucleation and Tunneling in Superconducting Thin Films: Role of Dissipation and Periodic Pinning

We investigate the phenomenon of decay of a supercurrent in a superconducting thin film in the absence of an applied magnetic field. The resulting zero-temperature resistance derives from two equally possible mechanisms: 1) quantum tunneling of vortices from the edges of the sample; and 2) homogeneous quantum nucleation of vortex-antivortex pairs in the bulk of the sample, arising from the instability of the Magnus field’s “vacuum”. We study both situations in the case where quantum dissipation dominates over the inertia of the vortices. We find that the vortex tunneling and nucleation rates have a very rapid dependence on the current density driven through the sample. Accordingly, whilst normally the superconductor is essentially resistancefree, for the high current densities that can be reached in high-Tc films a measurable resistance might develop. We show that edge-tunneling appears favoured, but the presence of pinning centres and of thermal fluctuations leads to an enhancement of the nucleation rates. In the case where a periodic pinning potential is artificially introduced in the sample, we show that current-oscillations will develop indicating an effect specific to the nucleation mechanism where the vortex pair-production rate, thus the resistance, becomes sensitive to the corrugation of the pinning substrate. In all situations, we give estimates for the observability of the studied phenomena. [PACS numbers: 74.60.Ge, 74.20.-z, 03.70.+k]