Phase Coherence and Dynamics in Microfabricated Superconductor Devices and Mesoscopic Structures

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The proposal comprises three projects, each investigating phase- coherent effects in microfabricated, multiply connected, thin-film structures, each requiring sensitive dc-SQUID magnetometry or potentiometry to probe the phase coherence and phase dynamics: 1) Macroscopic quantum phase phenomena - a study of macroscopic quantum tunneling in multidimensional systems to test the validity and applicability of quantum mechanics to macroscop-ic physical systems. 2) Phase coherence and vortex dynamics in superconducting arrays - measurement of the static vortex config-uration in arrays by a scanning SQUID detector and vortex dynam-ics by noise and non- equilibrium transport experiments. 3) Phase coherence in mesoscopic devices - measurement of persistent currents and screening in normal-metal rings, arrays and SQUIDS to study the role of phase coherence and scattering. %%% Phase-coherence effects in superconductors and in normal-metal "nanostructures" are important both in the development of high- sensitivity detectors and other electronic devices, and in the study of the fundamentals of condensed-matter physics. //