Nonmonotonic Temperature-Dependent Dissipation at Nonequilibrium in Atomically Thin Clean-Limit Superconductors

Resistance in superconductors arises from the motion of vortices driven by flowing supercurrents or external electromagnetic fields and may be strongly affected by thermal or quantum fluctuations. The common expectation is that as the temperature is lowered, vortex motion is suppressed, leading to a decreased resistance. We show experimentally that in clean-limit atomically thin 2H-NbSe₂ the resistance below the superconducting transition temperature may be nonmonotonic, passing through a minimum before increasing again as the temperature is decreased further. The effect is most pronounced in monolayer devices and cannot be understood in terms of known mechanisms. We propose a qualitative two-fluid vortex model in which thermal fluctuations of pinned vortices control the mobility of the free vortices. The findings provide a new perspective on fundamental questions of vortex mobility and dissipation in superconductors.