Disorder-induced 2D superconductivity in a NbTiN film grown on Si by ultrahigh-vacuum magneton sputtering

Abstract

We report on the growth and characterization of a niobium titanium nitride (NbTiN) film on a Si substrate prepared by ultrahigh vacuum sputtering. We show that the superconducting transition temperature is lower than those of high-quality NbTiN films. Interestingly, even though the zero-temperature Ginzburg-Landau coherence length (=9.77 nm) is significantly shorter than the film thickness (=86 nm), we are still able to observe the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless-like transition, indicating the two-dimensional (2D) signature of our three-dimensional (3D) sample. We propose that the mechanism of hidden 2D superconducting property is similar to the recently reported results of the disordered induced 3D to 2D superconductor transition. We suggest further theoretical work is required for studying our new experimental results.