Thermal and quantum depletion of superconductivity in narrow junctions created by controlled electromigration

Superconducting nanowires have been, for years now, a topic of great interest due to their potential application in single photon detectors and as interconnects in circuits proposed for quantum computing. In this context, it is of fundamental importance to better understand the undesired and harmful appearance of thermal and quantum fluctuations of the superconducting order parameter as a function of the wire width.
In this presentation, we explore in-situ controlled electromigration (EM) to fabricate nano-constrictions immersed in cryogenic environment. We demonstrate that a transition from thermally assisted phase slips (TAPS) to quantum phase slips (QPS) takes place when the effective cross section becomes smaller than ~150 nm^2. In the regime dominated by QPS the nanowire loses completely its capacity to carry current without dissipation, even at the lowest possible temperature. We also demonstrate that the bow-tie shaped constrictions exhibit a negative magnetoresistance at low magnetic fields which can be attributed to the suppression of superconductivity in the contact leads. Strikingly, the detrimental effect caused by the repeated EM can be healed by simply inverting the current direction. These findings reveal perspectives of the proposed fabrication method for exploring various fascinating superconducting phenomena in atomic size constrictions.