Subatomic mechanism of the oscillatory magnetoresistance in superconductors

Abstract

In the recent experiments [1] the unusual oscillatory magnetoresistance in superconductors was discovered with a periodicity essentially independent on magnetic field direction and even material parameters. The nearly universal period points to a subatomic mechanism of the phenomenon. This mechanism is related to formation inside samples of subatomically thin (10−11 cm) threads in the form of rings of approximately Bohr radius. Electron states of rings go over into conduction electrons which carry the same spin imbalance in energy as rings. The imbalance occurs due to spin interaction with the orbital momentum of the ring. The conductivity near Tc is determined by fluctuating Cooper pairs consisting of electrons with shifted energies. Due to different angular momenta of rings these energies periodically depend on magnetic field resulting in the observed oscillatory magnetoresistance. Calculated universal positions of peaks (n + 1/2)∆H (∆H \simeq 0.18T and n = 0, 1, 2...) on the R(H) curve are in a good agreement with measurements.