SCQSR · Superconductivity in quantum-size regime

Recent technological advances resulted in high-quality superconducting metallic nanofilms and nanowires being in the clean limit for the confined motion of electrons. Potential application of such nanostructures stimulated active research of their physical properties. These properties are mainly governed by the size-quantization of the transverse electron spectrum. This effect has a substantial impact on the basic superconducting characteristics, e.g., the order parameter, the critical temperature, the critical magnetic field and the critical current. This project focuses on theoretical description of various superconducting properties of nanostructures in the clean regime. The theoretical tools to perform this involve the formalism of numerical self-consistent Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations, the Eliashberg equations approach, Richardson exact solution of the discrete BCS model and the functional integration method. The study intends to clarify important question concerning the enhancement of the superconductivity due to quantum confinement and ways to optimize the targeted properties of superconducting structures. The results are expected to be of interest to a broad community of physicists working in the field of superconductivity as well as to technologies designing novel applications based on superconducting nanostructures.