Intrinsic resistance fluctuations in mesoscopic superconducting wires

Abstract
The puzzling appearance of a large resistance peak in the superconducting state near Tc of mesoscopic superconducting wires is analyzed. It is shown that this resistance anomaly can be explained in terms of thermal fluctuations producing phase slips of the superconducting order parameter in quasi-one-dimensional wires. Good quantitative agreement with the experimental observations is obtained within the framework of the modified Langer-Ambegaokar and McCumber-Halperin models.