Substrate mediated nitridation of niobium into superconducting Nb2N thin films for phase slip study

Abstract

Here we report a novel nitridation technique for transforming niobium into hexagonal Nb2N which appears to be superconducting below 1K. The nitridation is achieved by high temperature annealing of Nb films grown on Si3N4/Si (100) substrate under high vacuum. The structural characterization directs the formation of a majority Nb2N phase while the morphology shows granular nature of the films. The temperature dependent resistance measurements reveal a wide metal-to-superconductor transition featuring two distinct transition regions. The region close to the normal state varies strongly with the film thickness, whereas, the second region in the vicinity of the superconducting state remains almost unaltered but exhibiting resistive tailing. The current-voltage characteristics also display wide transition embedded with intermediate resistive states originated by phase slip lines. The transition width in current and the number of resistive steps depend on film thickness and they both increase with decrease in thickness. The broadening in transition width is explained by progressive establishment of superconductivity through proximity coupled superconducting nano-grains while finite size effects and quantum fluctuation may lead to the resistive tailing. Finally, by comparing with Nb control samples, we emphasize that Nb2N offers unconventional superconductivity with promises in the field of phase slip based device applications.

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Interface study of thermally driven chemical kinetics involved in Ti/Si3N4 based metal-substrate assembly by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
• Probing electron-electron interaction along with superconducting fluctuations in disordered TiN thin films
• A Robust nitridation technique for fabrication of disordered superconducting TiN thin films featuring phase slip events
• Structure and composition tunable superconductivity, band topology and elastic response of hard binary niobium nitrides Nb${}_2$N, Nb${}_4$N${}_3$ and Nb${}_4$N${}_5$
• Accessing Phase Slip Events in Nb Meander Wires
• Interplay between superconducting fluctuations and weak localization in disordered TiN thin films
• Thermal Annealing and Radiation Effects on Structural and Electrical Properties of NbN/GaN Superconductor/Semiconductor Junction