In their original formulation of superconductivity, the London brothers predicted¹ the exponential suppression of an electrostatic field inside a superconductor over the so-called London penetration depth^2,3,4, λ_L. Despite a few experiments indicating hints of perturbation induced by electrostatic fields^5,6,7, no clue has been provided so far on the possibility to manipulate metallic superconductors via the field effect. Here, we report field-effect control of the supercurrent in all-metallic transistors made of different Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer superconducting thin films. At low temperature, our field-effect transistors show a monotonic decay of the critical current under increasing electrostatic field up to total quenching for gate voltage values as large as ±40 V in titanium-based devices. This bipolar field effect persists up to ~85% of the critical temperature (~0.41 K), and in the presence of sizable magnetic fields. A similar behaviour is observed in aluminium thin-film field-effect transistors. A phenomenological theory accounts for our observations, and points towards the interpretation in terms of an electric-field-induced perturbation propagating inside the superconducting film. In our understanding, this affects the pairing potential and quenches the supercurrent. These results could represent a groundbreaking asset for the realization of all-metallic superconducting field-effect electronics and leading-edge quantum information architectures^8,9.

在原来的超导性制剂，伦敦兄弟预测¹的静电场的超导体在所谓的伦敦穿透深度内的指数抑制^2,3,4，λ_大号。尽管有一些实验表明有静电场^5,6,7引起的扰动的暗示迄今为止，还没有提供关于通过场效应来操纵金属超导体的可能性的线索。在这里，我们报告了由不同的Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer超导薄膜制成的全金属晶体管中超电流的场效应控制。在低温下，对于钛基器件中的栅极电压值高达±40 V的情况，我们的场效应晶体管在不断增加的静电场下直至完全淬火时，都会显示出临界电流的单调衰减。这种双极场效应持续存在高达临界温度（〜0.41 K）的〜85％，并且存在相当大的磁场。在铝薄膜场效应晶体管中观察到了类似的行为。现象学理论解释了我们的观察结果，并以超导薄膜内部传播的电场引起的扰动来解释。据我们了解，这会影响配对电位并消除超电流。这些结果可能代表了实现全金属超导场效应电子学和前沿量子信息架构的突破性资产^8,9。