Survival of Cooper pairs in the insulating phase: “super-insulators” – Sambandamurthy Ganapathy

Date: Thu. October 2nd, 2008, 4:15 pm-5:15 pm
Location: Rockefeller 301

I will present experimental results from our study of 2D thin films that are driven through the superconductor-insulator quantum phase transition. In particular, the microscopic transport behavior of the films at high magnetic fields will be presented. The films show novel collective behavior in the insulating phase that suggests the survival of superconducting correlations well above the critical point of the quantum phase transition, thus forming a super-insulator.