  Electrical transport measurements were made on single-crystal Sn nanowires to
understand the intrinsic dissipation mechanisms of a one-dimensional
superconductor. While the resistance of wires of diameter larger than 70 nm
drops precipitately to zero at Tc near 3.7 K, a residual resistive tail
extending down to low temperature is found for wires with diameters of 20 and
40 nm. As a function of temperature, the logarithm of the residual resistance
appears as two linear sections, one within a few tenths of a degree below Tc
and the other extending down to at least 0.47 K, the minimum temperature of the
measurements. The residual resistance is found to be ohmic at all temperatures
below Tc of Sn. These findings are suggestive of a thermally activated phase
slip process near Tc and quantum fluctuation-induced phase slip process in the
low temperature regime. When the excitation current exceeds a critical value,
the voltage-current (V-I) curves show a series of discrete steps in approaching
the normal state. These steps cannot be fully understood with the classical
Skocpol-Beasley-Tinkham phase slip center model (PSC), but can be qualitatively
accounted for partly by the PSC model modified by Michotte et al.
