Electrostatic Field-Driven Supercurrent Suppression in Ionic-Gated Metallic Superconducting Nanotransistors
Federico Paolucci, Francesco Crisá, Giorgio De Simoni, Lennart Bours, Claudio Puglia, Elia Strambini, Stefano Roddaro, Francesco Giazotto
Abstract
Recent experiments have shown the possibility of tuning the transport properties of metallic nanosized superconductors through a gate voltage. These results renewed the longstanding debate on the interaction between electrostatic fields and superconductivity. Indeed, different works suggested competing mechanisms as the cause of the effect: an unconventional electric field-effect or quasiparticle injection. Here, we provide conclusive evidence for the electrostatic-field-driven control of the supercurrent in metallic nanosized superconductors, by realizing ionic-gated superconducting field-effect nanotransistors (ISFETs) where electron injection is impossible. Our Nb ISFETs show giant suppression of the superconducting critical current of up to ∼45%. Moreover, the bipolar supercurrent suppression observed in different ISFETs, together with invariant critical temperature and normal-state resistance, also excludes conventional charge accumulation/depletion. Therefore, the microscopic explanation of this effect calls upon a novel theory able to describe the nontrivial interaction of static electric fields with conventional superconductivity.