Anisotropic superconductivity of niobium based on its response to non-magnetic disorder

Abstract

Niobium is one of the most studied superconductors, both theoretically and experimentally. It is tremendously important for applications, and it has the highest superconducting transition temperature, $T_c=9.33$ K, of all pure metals. In addition to power applications in alloys, pure niobium is used for sensitive magneto-sensing, radio-frequency cavities, and, more recently, as circuit metallization layers in superconducting qubits. A detailed understanding of its electronic and superconducting structure, especially its normal and superconducting state anisotropies, is crucial for mitigating the loss of quantum coherence in such devices. Recently, a microscopic theory of the anisotropic properties of niobium with the disorder was put forward. To verify theoretical predictions, we studied the effect of disorder produced by 3.5 MeV proton irradiation of thin Nb films grown by the same team and using the same protocols as those used in transmon qubits. By measuring the superconducting transition temperature and upper critical fields, we show a clear suppression of $T_c$ by potential (non-magnetic) scattering, which is directly related to the anisotropic order parameter. We obtain a very close quantitative agreement between the theory and the experiment.

References in corpus (2)

• The Suprafroth (Superconducting Froth)
• Onset of surface superconductivity beyond the Saint-James-de Gennes limit

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Quasiparticle spectroscopy, transport, and magnetic properties of Nb films used in superconducting transmon qubits
• Disorder-dependent superconducting pairing symmetry in doped graphene
• The nontrivial effects of annealing on superconducting properties of Nb single crystals
• Anisotropic multiband superconductivity in 2M-WS${}_2$ probed by controlled disorder
• Suppressed paramagnetism in amorphous Ta${}_2$O${}_{5-x}$ oxides and its link to superconducting qubit performance
• Quasiparticle spectroscopy in technologically-relevant niobium using London penetration depth measurements