When superconductor turns superinsulator

For nearly a half century the dominant orthodoxy has been that the only effect of Cooper pairing is a state with zero resistivity at finite temperatures, superconductivity.  In this talk I will show that Cooper pairing can generate a dual state with zero conductivity in a finite temperature range, superinsulation.  Superconductor-superinsulator duality rests on the symmetry of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle relating the amplitude and phase of the superconducting order parameter. It is realized in the critical region of the quantum superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) in two-dimensional systems via the duality between the vortex and charge of the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition. I will discuss the origin of the long-range logarithmic two-dimensional Coulomb forces between the charges ensuring the vortex-charge duality in the critical vicinity of the SIT.

Prof. Baturina is from A. V. Rzhanov Institute of Semiconductor Physics SB RAS, 13 Lavrentjev Avenue, Novosibirsk, 630090 Russia