Hard superconductivity of a soft metal in the quantum regime

Superconductivity is inevitably suppressed in reduced dimensionality. Questions of how thin superconducting wires or films can be before they lose their superconducting properties have important technological ramifications and go to the heart of understanding coherence and robustness of the superconducting state in quantum-confined geometries. Here, we exploit quantum confinement of itinerant electrons in a soft metal, Pb, to stabilize superconductors with lateral dimensions of the order of a few millimetres and vertical dimensions of only a few atomic layers. These extremely thin superconductors show no indication of defect- or fluctuation-driven suppression of superconductivity, and sustain supercurrents of up to 10% of the depairing current density. Their magnetic hardness implies a Bean-like critical state with strong vortex pinning that is attributed to quantum trapping of vortices. This study paints a conceptually appealing, elegant picture of a model nanoscale superconductor with calculable critical-state properties and surprisingly strong phase coherence. It indicates the intriguing possibility of exploiting robust superconductivity at the nanoscale. © 2006 Nature Publishing Group.