Abstract
Suppression of superconductivity in disordered systems is a fundamental problem of condensed matter physics. Here we investigate superconducting niobium-titanium-nitride (Nb1−xTixN) thin films grown by the atomic layer deposition (ALD) with slightly different growth process parameters. We observe a smooth crossover from the disorder-driven superconductor-normal metal transition (SMT) to the superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) via the intermediate Bose metal state detected by the low-temperature saturation of the temperature dependence of the sheet resistance. We demonstrate that the SIT via the intervening Bose metal state occurs if the sheet resistance of the film in the maximum, Rmax prior to the superconducting drop of R(T), exceeds Rq = h/4e2.
Highlights
Suppression of superconductivity in disordered systems is a fundamental problem of condensed matter physics
A qualitative difference between Set-1 and Sets-2,3 is that the superconductivity in Set-1 (Fig. 1(a)) gets fully suppressed, with the sheet resistance of samples in maximum Rmax increasing, before Rmax reaches Rq
We have examined three sets of superconducting disordered thin Nb1−xTixN films, where the only difference between sets was the fraction of Ti x and/or the temperature of deposition TALD
Summary
Suppression of superconductivity in disordered systems is a fundamental problem of condensed matter physics. We observe a smooth crossover from the disorder-driven superconductor-normal metal transition (SMT) to the superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) via the intermediate Bose metal state detected by the lowtemperature saturation of the temperature dependence of the sheet resistance. The superconductor-normal metal transition (SMT) occurs due to the complete disappearance of the Cooper pairs, and the suppression ofTc with R N growth is well described by the Finkel’stein formula[3]. Such a behaviour is observed, for example, in thin films of niobium nitride NbN6,7.
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