Enhanced superconductivity in aluminum-based hyperbolic metamaterials

Vera N Smolyaninova; Christopher Jensen; William Zimmerman; Joseph C Prestigiacomo; Michael S Osofsky; Heungsoo Kim; Nabil Bassim; Zhen Xing; Mumtaz M Qazilbash; Igor I Smolyaninov

doi:10.1038/srep34140

Enhanced superconductivity in aluminum-based hyperbolic metamaterials

Sci Rep. 2016 Sep 23:6:34140. doi: 10.1038/srep34140.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics Astronomy and Geosciences, Towson University, 8000 York Rd., Towson, MD 21252, USA.
² Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA.
³ Department of Physics, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187-8795, USA.
⁴ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.

Abstract

One of the most important goals of condensed matter physics is materials by design, i.e. the ability to reliably predict and design materials with a set of desired properties. A striking example is the deterministic enhancement of the superconducting properties of materials. Recent experiments have demonstrated that the metamaterial approach is capable of achieving this goal, such as tripling the critical temperature T_C in Al-Al₂O₃ epsilon near zero (ENZ) core-shell metamaterial superconductors. Here, we demonstrate that an Al/Al₂O₃ hyperbolic metamaterial geometry is capable of a similar T_C enhancement, while having superior transport and magnetic properties compared to the core-shell metamaterial superconductors.