Superconductivity in Ag implanted Au thin film

Abstract

Au and Ag are known to be metallic and none of them have shown independently superconductivity. Here we show superconductivity in Ag implanted Au thin films. Ag implanted Au films of different thicknesses have been studied using four probe resistance versus temperature measurements. We have also measured the pristine samples (i.e. without any implantation) to compare the transport properties. The superconducting transition occurs around ~2 K (TC) for Ag implanted 20 nm Au film (the lowest resistance observed below TC is ~10−6 Ohm). Change of Tc towards lower temperatures has been observed under the effect of increasing current and magnetic field which endorses the superconducting state. Further the V ~ I measurements were carried out to verify the superconducting nature. We have estimated the coherence length to be about 10 nm. On the other hand, the pristine samples clearly did not exhibit superconductivity down to 1.6 K. Our results open an avenue for further exploring this type of novel superconductivity for future applications.