Superconductor to weak-insulator transitions in disordered tantalum nitride films

Breznay, Nicholas P.; Tendulkar, Mihir; Zhang, Li; Lee, Sang -Chul; Kapitulnik, Aharon

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.96.134522

Superconductor to weak-insulator transitions in disordered tantalum nitride films

Journal Article · Tue Oct 31 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Physical Review B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.134522· OSTI ID:1410604

Breznay, Nicholas P. ^[1]; Tendulkar, Mihir ^[2]; Zhang, Li ^[2]; Lee, Sang -Chul ^[2]; Kapitulnik, Aharon ^[2]

Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA (United States)
Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)

Here, we study the two-dimensional superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) in thin films of tantalum nitride. At zero magnetic field, films can be disorder-tuned across the SIT by adjusting thickness and film stoichiometry; insulating films exhibit classical hopping transport. Superconducting films exhibit a magnetic-field-tuned SIT, whose insulating ground state at high field appears to be a quantum-corrected metal. Scaling behavior at the field-tuned SIT shows classical percolation critical exponents zν ≈ 1.3, with a corresponding critical field H_c << H_c2, the upper critical field. The Hall effect exhibits a crossing point near H_c, but with a nonuniversal critical value ρ^c_xy comparable to the normal-state Hall resistivity. We propose that high-carrier-density metals will always exhibit this pattern of behavior at the boundary between superconducting and (trivially) insulating ground states.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-76SF00515

OSTI ID:: 1410604

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1406153

Journal Information:: Physical Review B, Journal Name: Physical Review B Journal Issue: 13 Vol. 96; ISSN 2469-9950; ISSN PRBMDO

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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