Superconductivity in Nanowires: Fabrication and Quantum Transport [Repost]

The importance and actuality of nanotechnology is unabated and will be for years to come. A main challenge is to apply Heisenberg’s Quantum Mechanics to understanding and design nanostructures with specific properties for use in actual applications in Electrical Engineering, Computer Technology, and Medicine.
One of the most basic and also important structures are nanowires, in particular superconducting ones. They are highly promising for future electronics, transporting current without resistance and at scales of a few nanometers. To fabricate wires to certain defined standards however, is a major challenge, and so is the investigation and understanding of these properties in the first place. A promising approach is to use carbon nanotubes as well as DNA structures as templates.
Many fundamental theoretical questions are still unanswered, e.g. related to the role of quantum fluctuations. This work is tackling them and provides a detailed analysis of the transport properties of such ultra-thin wires. It presents an account of theoretical models, charge transport experiments, and also conveys the latest experimental findings regarding fabrication, measurements, and statistical analysis of the fluctuations in ultrathin wires. In particular, it is the only available resource for the approach of using DNA and carbon nanotubes for nanowire fabrication.
From the contents:
Selected Theoretical Topics Relevant to Superconducting Nanowires
Stewart-McCumber Model
Fabrication of Nanowires Using Molecular Templates
Experimental Methods
Resistance of Nanowires Made of Superconducting Materials
Golubev and Zaikin Theory of Thermally Activated Phase Slips
Stochastic Premature Switching and Kurkijärvi Theory
Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling in Thin Wires
Superconductor-Insulator Transition (SIT) in Thin and Short Wires
Bardeen Formula for the Temperature Dependence of the Critical Current