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Title: Niobium in the clean limit: An intrinsic type-I superconductor

Journal Article · · Phys.Rev.B

Niobium is one of the most researched superconductors, both theoretically and experimentally. It is enormously significant in all branches of superconducting applications, from powerful magnets to quantum computing. It is therefore imperative to understand its fundamental properties in great detail. Here, we use the results of recent microscopic calculations of anisotropic electronic, phonon, and superconducting properties, and apply a thermodynamic criterion for the type of superconductivity, more accurate and straightforward than a conventional Ginzburg-Landau parameter κ -based delineation, to show that pure niobium is a type-I superconductor in the clean limit. However, disorder (impurities, defects, strain, stress) pushes it to become a type-II superconductor.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
1906058
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB-22-885-SQMS-V; arXiv:2207.11829; oai:inspirehep.net:2122602
Journal Information:
Phys.Rev.B, Vol. 106, Issue 18
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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