Superconductor to weak-insulator transitions in disordered tantalum nitride films
Abstract
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 Hc << Hc2, the upper critical field. The Hall effect exhibits a crossing point near Hc, but with a nonuniversal critical value ρcxy 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.
- Authors:
-
- Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA (United States)
- Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1410604
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1406153
- Grant/Contract Number:
- NSF-DMR-9508419; AC02-76SF00515
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review B
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 96; Journal Issue: 13; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9950
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
Citation Formats
Breznay, Nicholas P., Tendulkar, Mihir, Zhang, Li, Lee, Sang -Chul, and Kapitulnik, Aharon. Superconductor to weak-insulator transitions in disordered tantalum nitride films. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.96.134522.
Breznay, Nicholas P., Tendulkar, Mihir, Zhang, Li, Lee, Sang -Chul, & Kapitulnik, Aharon. Superconductor to weak-insulator transitions in disordered tantalum nitride films. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.134522
Breznay, Nicholas P., Tendulkar, Mihir, Zhang, Li, Lee, Sang -Chul, and Kapitulnik, Aharon. Tue .
"Superconductor to weak-insulator transitions in disordered tantalum nitride films". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.134522. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1410604.
@article{osti_1410604,
title = {Superconductor to weak-insulator transitions in disordered tantalum nitride films},
author = {Breznay, Nicholas P. and Tendulkar, Mihir and Zhang, Li and Lee, Sang -Chul and Kapitulnik, Aharon},
abstractNote = {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 Hc << Hc2, the upper critical field. The Hall effect exhibits a crossing point near Hc, but with a nonuniversal critical value ρcxy 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.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevB.96.134522},
journal = {Physical Review B},
number = 13,
volume = 96,
place = {United States},
year = {2017},
month = {10}
}
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