Title :

Persistence of superconductivity in niobium ultrathin films grown on R-plane sapphire

Author(s) :

Delacour, Cécile [Auteur]
Thermodynamique et biophysique des petits systèmes [NEEL - TPS]
Ortega, L. [Auteur]
Optique & Microscopies [NEEL - POM]
Faucher, M. [Auteur]
Crozes, T. [Auteur]
Nanofabrication [NEEL - Nanofab]
Fournier, T. [Auteur]
Nanofabrication [NEEL - Nanofab]
Pannetier, B. [Auteur]
Circuits électroniques quantiques Alpes [NEEL - QuantECA]
Bouchiat, V. [Auteur]
Interactions modulables dans des états quantiques 2D [NEEL - Quan2m]

Journal title :

Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (1998-2015)

Pages :

144504

Publisher :

American Physical Society

Publication date :

2011-04-04

ISSN :

1098-0121

English keyword(s) :

Superconducting films and low-dimensional structures
Vapor phase epitaxy
growth from vapor phase

HAL domain(s) :

Physique [physics]

English abstract : [en]

We report on a combined structural and electronic analysis of niobium ultrathin films (from 2 to 10 nm) deposited in ultra-high vacuum on atomically flat Rplane sapphire wafers. A textured polycrystalline morphology is ...
Show more >We report on a combined structural and electronic analysis of niobium ultrathin films (from 2 to 10 nm) deposited in ultra-high vacuum on atomically flat Rplane sapphire wafers. A textured polycrystalline morphology is observed for the thinnest films showing that hetero-epitaxy is not achieved under a thickness of 3.3nm , which almost coincides with the first measurement of a superconducting state. The superconducting critical temperature rise takes place on a very narrow thickness range, of the order of a single monolayer (ML). The thinnest superconducting sample (3 nm/9ML) has an offset critical temperature above 4.2K and can be processed by standard nanofabrication techniques to generate air- and time-stable superconducting nanostructures, useful for quantum devices.Show less >

Language :

Anglais

Peer reviewed article :

Oui

Audience :

Non spécifiée

Popular science :

Non

Collections :

• Institut d'Électronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie (IEMN) - UMR 8520

Source :

Harvested from HAL