Superconducting properties and crystal structures of single-crystal niobium nitride thin films deposited at ambient substrate temperature

Abstract

Single-crystal niobium nitride (NbN) thin films were fabricated at ambient substrate temperature so that photoresist lift-off techniques could be used in fabricating Josephson tunnel junctions. In this article, we describe the superconducting properties and crystal structure of the NbN films. Even though the substrates were not heated, the NbN films had excellent superconducting properties: a high Tc of 16 K, low normal-state resistivity (ρ20=62 μΩ cm), and residual resistivity ratios RRR=ρ300/ρ20 above one. The film structures, which were investigated by x-ray diffraction, electron diffraction patterns and transmission electron micrographs, show a single-phase orientation without columnar and granular structures. We have found that the superconducting properties depend on the lattice parameter, and the best films had a lattice parameter of 0.446 nm. NbN/AlN/Nb tunnel junctions were fabricated to measure the superconducting energy gap of the NbN films. We estimated the energy gap ΔNbN to be 2.6 meV and the magnetic penetration depth λNbN to be 176 nm.