Superconductor to weak-insulator transitions in disordered tantalum nitride films

Nicholas P. Breznay, Mihir Tendulkar, Li Zhang, Sang-Chul Lee, and Aharon Kapitulnik
Phys. Rev. B 96, 134522 – Published 31 October 2017

Abstract

We study the two-dimensional superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) in thin films of tantalum nitride. At zero magnetic field, films can be disorder-tuned across the SIT by adjusting thickness and film stoichiometry; insulating films exhibit classical hopping transport. Superconducting films exhibit a magnetic-field-tuned SIT, whose insulating ground state at high field appears to be a quantum-corrected metal. Scaling behavior at the field-tuned SIT shows classical percolation critical exponents zν1.3, with a corresponding critical field HcHc2, the upper critical field. The Hall effect exhibits a crossing point near Hc, but with a nonuniversal critical value ρxyc comparable to the normal-state Hall resistivity. We propose that high-carrier-density metals will always exhibit this pattern of behavior at the boundary between superconducting and (trivially) insulating ground states.

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  • Received 29 May 2017
  • Revised 10 October 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.134522

©2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Nicholas P. Breznay1,2,*, Mihir Tendulkar1, Li Zhang1, Sang-Chul Lee3, and Aharon Kapitulnik1,4

  • 1Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
  • 2Department of Physics, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California 91711, USA
  • 3Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
  • 4Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA

  • *nbreznay@hmc.edu

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Issue

Vol. 96, Iss. 13 — 1 October 2017

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