Quantum critical collapse of a pinned vortex glass in high-field superconducting resonators

Abstract

The interplay between disorder and vortex--vortex interactions in strongly disordered superconductors in a magnetic field can stabilize a vortex-glass state, characterized by strong pinning and the absence of positional order. Yet its role in the destruction of superconductivity at the field-driven superconductor--insulator transition has remained unresolved. Here we use plasmonic microwave spectroscopy of superconducting resonators patterned from amorphous indium oxide thin films to directly track the superfluid density up to the critical field B_c. We find an unexpected resilience of the superfluid density, which decreases only logarithmically over nearly three orders of magnitude in field, in stark contrast to the rapid power-law suppression expected for vortex lattices. We attribute this anomalously slow decay to a collective vortex-pinning mechanism counterintuitively enhanced by vortex--vortex interactions. The superfluid density then vanishes linearly at B_c, where independent magnetoresistance measurements identify a continuous quantum critical point, unlike the abrupt transition observed at zero field. We further uncover an exceptionally large nonlinear electromagnetic response of the vortex glass, manifested as a pronounced positive-Kerr effect with potential for quantum sensing. These results show how disorder controls the critical magnetic field and identify the vortex glass as the key intermediate state governing the magnetic-field-induced superconductor--insulator transition.

Quantum critical collapse in the large D limit
Chih-Hung Wu
arXiv14 Oct 2026PreprintCC BY 4.0Full textGravitation & general relativity High-energy & particle physicsarXiv
Coupling of two individual magnon resonators via a superconducting microwave resonator operating in the strong coupling regime
Anoop Kamalasanan, Georg Schmidt, Seth W. Kurfman
arXiv31 Aug 2026PreprintCC BY 4.0Full textCondensed matterarXiv
Highly crystalline superconducting TiN resonators grown on thermally reconstructed sapphire
Thomas J. Smart, Marc Neis, Janine Lorenz +15
arXiv28 Aug 2026PreprintarXiv licenceFull textCondensed matterarXiv
Enhanced electron-beam lithography to reduce the frequency scatter of 200-400 GHz superconducting microstrip resonators for on-chip filterbank spectrometers
L. G. G. Olde Scholtenhuis, D. J. Thoen, J. J. A. Baselmans +4
arXiv11 Sep 2026PreprintCC BY 4.0Full textInstrumentation & methods Applied physics & instrumentationarXiv
Kerr nonlinearity and three-wave mixing in superconducting resonators hosting Al-InAs weak links
Vittorio Buccheri, Ivo P. C. Cools, Nermin Trnjanin +6
arXiv28 Aug 2026PreprintCC BY-NC-ND 4.0Full textQuantum physics & quantum informationarXiv

Cite

BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{perconte2026quantum,
  title = {{Quantum critical collapse of a pinned vortex glass in high-field superconducting resonators}},
  author = {David Perconte and Thibault Charpentier and Nikolaos Koutsopoulos and Kalpajit Roy and Nadjib Benchabane and Xiaoli Peng and Florent Blondelle and Frédéric Gay and Mikhail Feigel'Man and Viktor Kabanov and Benjamin Sacépé},
  howpublished = {HAL},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.23838},
  eprint = {2605.23838},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://hal.science/hal-05805123v1},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Quantum critical collapse of a pinned vortex glass in high-field superconducting resonators
AU  - David Perconte
AU  - Thibault Charpentier
AU  - Nikolaos Koutsopoulos
AU  - Kalpajit Roy
AU  - Nadjib Benchabane
AU  - Xiaoli Peng
AU  - Florent Blondelle
AU  - Frédéric Gay
AU  - Mikhail Feigel'Man
AU  - Viktor Kabanov
AU  - Benjamin Sacépé
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/10
PB  - HAL
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.23838
UR  - https://hal.science/hal-05805123v1
AB  - The interplay between disorder and vortex--vortex interactions in strongly disordered superconductors in a magnetic field can stabilize a vortex-glass state, characterized by strong pinning and the absence of positional order. Yet its role in the destruction of superconductivity at the field-driven superconductor--insulator transition has remained unresolved. Here we use plasmonic microwave spectroscopy of superconducting resonators patterned from amorphous indium oxide thin films to directly track the superfluid density up to the critical field B_c. We find an unexpected resilience of the superfluid density, which decreases only logarithmically over nearly three orders of magnitude in field, in stark contrast to the rapid power-law suppression expected for vortex lattices. We attribute this anomalously slow decay to a collective vortex-pinning mechanism counterintuitively enhanced by vortex--vortex interactions. The superfluid density then vanishes linearly at B_c, where independent magnetoresistance measurements identify a continuous quantum critical point, unlike the abrupt transition observed at zero field. We further uncover an exceptionally large nonlinear electromagnetic response of the vortex glass, manifested as a pronounced positive-Kerr effect with potential for quantum sensing. These results show how disorder controls the critical magnetic field and identify the vortex glass as the key intermediate state governing the magnetic-field-induced superconductor--insulator transition.
ER  -

Abstract

Related

Cite