A plausible explanation of the repeated "noise" pattern in the data of arXiv:1807.08572: quantum confinement and surface phonon modes

Abstract

A key point from the experiment related to the "noise" pattern in figure 3(a) of arXive:1807.08572 is that it is a function of temperature. We put forward a possible explanation. We argue that it is the elasto-magnetic coupling in which the diamagnetic surface currents on the surface of nanoparticles couple to surface phonon modes. As the temperature is increased (say from 210 K to 220 K), successive phonon modes are excited, one by one. This is due to quantum confinement where phonon modes take discrete values of energy (in bulk, the modes are quasi-continuous). One by one excitation of phonon modes modulates the surface currents on nano-particles that led to a fluctuating magnetization thus "noise" in the lower part of the susceptibility data where the system is in the superconducting state.