The interaction-induced orbital magnetic response of a nanoscale ring is evaluated for a diffusive system which is a superconductor in the bulk. The interplay of the renormalized Coulomb and Fr{o}hlich interactions is crucial. The magnetic susceptibi
lity which results from the fluctuations of the uniform superconducting order parameter is diamagnetic (paramagnetic) when the renormalized combined interaction is attractive (repulsive). Above the transition temperature of the bulk the total magnetic susceptibility has contributions from many wave-vector- and (Matsubara) frequency-dependent order parameter fluctuations. Each of these contributions results from a different renormalization of the relevant coupling energy, when one integrates out the fermionic degrees of freedom. The total diamagnetic response of the large superconductor may become paramagnetic when the systems size decreases.
The contributions of superconducting fluctuations to the specific heat of dirty superconductors are calculated, including quantum and classical corrections to the `usual leading Gaussian divergence. These additional terms modify the Ginzburg criterio
n, which is based on equating these fluctuation-generated contributions to the mean-field discontinuity in the specific heat, and set limits on its applicability for materials with a low transition temperature.
We calculate the contribution of superconducting fluctuations to the mesoscopic persistent current of an ensemble of rings, each made of a superconducting layer in contact with a normal one, in the Cooper limit. The superconducting transition tempera
ture of the bilayer decays very quickly with the increase of the relative width of the normal layer. In contrast, when the Thouless energy is larger than the temperature then the suppression of the persistent current with the increase of this relative width is much slower than that of the transition temperature. This effect is similar to that predicted for magnetic impurities, although the proximity effect considered here results in pair-weakening as opposed to pair-breaking.
Spin-1/2 electrons are scattered through one or two diamond-like loops, made of quantum dots connected by one-dimensional wires, and subject to both an Aharonov-Bohm flux and (Rashba and Dresselhaus) spin-orbit interactions. With some symmetry betwee
n the two branches of each diamond, and with appropriate tuning of the electric and magnetic fields (or of the diamond shapes) this device completely blocks electrons with one polarization, and allows only electrons with the opposite polarization to be transmitted. The directions of these polarizations are tunable by these fields, and do not depend on the energy of the scattered electrons. For each range of fields one can tune the site and bond energies of the device so that the transmission of the fully polarized electrons is close to unity. Thus, these devices perform as ideal spin filters, and these electrons can be viewed as mobile qubits; the device writes definite quantum information on the spinors of the outgoing electrons. The device can also read the information written on incoming polarized electrons: the charge transmission through the device contains full information on this polarization. The double-diamond device can also act as a realization of the Datta-Das spin field-effect transistor.
