Abstract
New scaling behavior has been both predicted and observed in the spontaneous production of fluxons in quenched annular Josephson tunnel junctions (JTJs) as a function of the quench time, . The probability to trap a single defect during the normal-metal–superconductor phase transition clearly follows an allometric dependence on with a scaling exponent , as predicted from the Zurek-Kibble mechanism for realistic JTJs formed by strongly coupled superconductors. This definitive experiment replaces one reported by us earlier, in which an idealized model was used that predicted , commensurate with the then much poorer data. Our experiment remains the only condensed matter experiment to date to have measured a scaling exponent with any reliability.
- Received 22 February 2006
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.180604
©2006 American Physical Society