Anomalous metals: From “failed superconductor” to “failed insulator”

Resistivity saturation is found on both superconducting and insulating sides of an “avoided” magnetic-field-tuned superconductor-to-insulator transition (H-SIT) in a two-dimensional In/InO(x) composite, where the anomalous metallic behavior cuts off conductivity or resistivity divergence in the zero-temperature limit. The granular morphology of the material implies a system of Josephson junctions (JJs) with a broad distribution of Josephson coupling E(J) and charging energy E(C), with an H-SIT determined by the competition between E(J) and E(C). By virtue of self-duality across the true H-SIT, we invoke macroscopic quantum tunneling effects to explain the temperature-independent resistance where the “failed superconductor” side is a consequence of phase fluctuations and the “failed insulator” side results from charge fluctuations. While true self-duality is lost in the avoided transition, its vestiges are argued to persist, owing to the incipient duality of the percolative nature of the dissipative path in the underlying random JJ system.