Metallised 3D printed plastic resonator demonstrates superconductivity below 4 K

Abstract

We report the first observation of a superconducting transition in a 3D printed, metallised-plastic device. A cylindrical cavity is 3D printed from a photosensitive polymer resin and then a 20 $\hat{I}¼$m layer of tin deposited. A resonant TE microwave mode at 13.41 GHz is observed to reduce its losses by an order of magnitude once it is cooled below 3.72 K; the superconducting transition temperature of tin, with the mode's $Q$ factor increasing from $2.7\times 10^4$ to $4.0\times 10^5$.