Universal Voltage Fluctuations in Disordered Superconductors

Abstract

The Aharonov-Casher effect is the analogue of the Aharonov-Bohm effect that applies to neutral particles carrying a magnetic moment. This effect can be manifested by vortices or fluxons flowing in trajectories that encompass an electric charge. These vortices have been predicted to result in a persistent voltage that fluctuates for different sample realizations. Here, we show that disordered superconductors exhibit reproducible voltage fluctuation, which is antisymmetrical with respect to the magnetic field, as a function of various parameters such as the magnetic field amplitude, field orientations, and gate voltage. These results are interpreted as the vortex equivalent of the universal conductance fluctuations typical of mesoscopic disordered metallic systems. We analyze the data in the framework of random matrix theory and show that the fluctuation correlation functions and curvature distributions exhibit behavior that is consistent with Aharonov-Casher physics. The results demonstrate the quantum nature of the vortices in highly disordered superconductors, both above and below T_{c}.