Charge Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in superconducting NbTiN films

Abstract

A half-century after the discovery of the superconductor-insulator transition (SIT), one of the fundamental predictions of the theory, the charge Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition that is expected to occur at the insulating side of the SIT, has remained unobserved. The charge BKT transition is a phenomenon dual to the vortex BKT transition, which is at the heart of the very existence of two-dimensional superconductivity as a zero-resistance state appearing at finite temperatures. The dual picture points to the possibility of the existence of a superinsulating state endowed with zero conductance at finite temperature. Here, we report the observation of the charge BKT transition on the insulating side of the SIT, identified by the critical behavior of the resistance. We find that the critical temperature of the charge BKT transition depends on the magnetic field exhibiting first the fast growth and then passing through the maximum at fields much less than the upper critical field. Finally, we ascertain the effects of the finite electrostatic screening length and its divergence at the magnetic field-tuned approach to the superconductor-insulator transition.

arXiv comment9 pages, 6 figures

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• A Robust nitridation technique for fabrication of disordered superconducting TiN thin films featuring phase slip events
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• Superconductivity in a disordered metal with Coulomb interactions
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• Interplay between superconducting fluctuations and weak localization in disordered TiN thin films
• Superconducting phase transitions in disordered NbTiN films
• Epitaxial titanium nitride microwave resonators: Structural, chemical, electrical, and microwave properties
• Tuning of superconducting properties with disorder in NbxSn nanocrystalline thin films
• Proximitized insulators from disordered superconductors