Niobium in clean limit: an intrinsic type-I superconductor

Abstract

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 thermodynamic criterion for the type of superconductivity, more accurate and straightforward than a conventional Ginzburg-Landau parameter $\kappa$ - 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.

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Cited by in corpus (16)

• Depth-resolved measurements of the Meissner screening profile in surface-treated Nb
• Quasiparticle spectroscopy, transport, and magnetic properties of Nb films used in superconducting transmon qubits
• Coreless vortices as direct signature of chiral $d$-wave superconductivity
• Robust and tunable coreless vortices and fractional vortices in chiral $d$-wave superconductors
• Evidence for current suppression in superconductor-superconductor bilayers
• Enhanced chiral edge currents and orbital magnetic moment in chiral $d$-wave superconductors from mesoscopic finite-size effects
• The nontrivial effects of annealing on superconducting properties of Nb single crystals
• Signatures of Enhanced Superconducting Properties in Niobium Cavities
• Nanoscale observation and control of quasiparticle induced magnetic noise in a superconducting resonator
• Depth-resolved Characterization of Meissner Screening Breakdown in Surface Treated Niobium
• Two-photon coupling via Josephson element I: Breaking the symmetry with magnetic fields
• Niobium's intrinsic coherence length and penetration depth revisited using low-energy muon spin spectroscopy and secondary-ion mass spectrometry
• Polarization Controlled Supercurrent in Ferroelectric Josephson Junction
• Energy conservation and reversibility during thermodynamic changes of state in superconductors: Joule heat vs. magnetocaloric cooling
• Designing edge currents using mesoscopic patterning in chiral d-wave superconductors
• Electropolishing-Induced Topographic Defects in Niobium: Insights and Implications for Superconducting Radio Frequency Applications