Suppression of superconductivity in epitaxial NbN ultrathin films

Journal Article · Tue Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 2011 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3518037· OSTI ID:21538084

Kang, L; Jin, B B; Liu, X Y; Jia, X Q; Chen, J; Ji, Z M; Xu, W W; Wu, P H ^[1]; Mi, S B ^[2]; Pimenov, A ^[3]; Wu, Y J; Wang, B G ^[4]

---

1. Research Institute of Superconductor Electronics (RISE), School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093 (China)
2. Solid Atomic Imaging Division, Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016 (China)
3. Experimentelle Physik IV, Universitaet Wuerzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074 Wuerzburg (Germany)
4. Department of Physics, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093 (China)

This paper studies the suppression of superconducting transition temperature (T{sub c}) of ultrathin NbN film. We fabricated epitaxial NbN superconducting thin films of thicknesses ranging from 2.5 to 100 nm on single crystal MgO (100) substrates by dc magnetron sputtering. We performed structure analyses and measured their electric and far infrared properties. The experimental results were compared with several mechanisms of the suppression of superconductivity proposed in the literature, including the weak localization effect, the proximity effect, and quantum size effect (electron wave leakage model). We found that the electron wave leakage model matches best to the experimental data.

• OSTI ID: 21538084
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 109; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ALKALINE EARTH METAL COMPOUNDS
CHALCOGENIDES
CRYSTAL GROWTH METHODS
CRYSTALS
DEPOSITION
DIMENSIONS
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ELECTRON TUBES
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EPITAXY
EQUIPMENT
FERMIONS
FILMS
LAYERS
LEAKS
LEPTONS
MAGNESIUM COMPOUNDS
MAGNESIUM OXIDES
MAGNETRONS
MICROWAVE EQUIPMENT
MICROWAVE TUBES
MONOCRYSTALS
NIOBIUM COMPOUNDS
NIOBIUM NITRIDES
NITRIDES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PNICTIDES
PROXIMITY EFFECT
REFRACTORY METAL COMPOUNDS
REGENERATION
SPUTTERING
SUBSTRATES
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY
SUPERCONDUCTORS
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
THICKNESS
THIN FILMS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION TEMPERATURE
TYPE-II SUPERCONDUCTORS