Physical properties of novel amorphous superconducting thin film materials for superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors

XU Luo; ZHANG Xiaofu; YOU Lixing

doi:10.7498/aps.74.20250795

Abstract
Amorphous superconducting thin film materials have the advantages of high superconducting uniformity and good optical response sensitivity, which make them ideal materials for fabricating large-area and mid-infrared superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPD). In this paper, three series of different amorphous superconducting films are deposited on Si wafers by room-temperature magnetron co-sputtering. For these films, the dependence of their physical properties, i.e. critical temperature T_c, Ginzburg-Landau coherence length ξ(0), normal-state electron diffusion coefficient D_e, magnetic penetration depth λ(0), and superconducting energy gap Δ(0), on film thickness is systematically investigated. Compared with amorphous tungsten silicide (WSi) and molybdenum germanide (MoGe) superconducting thin films, WGe alloys and WSi have similar superconducting properties, including critical temperature and coherence length, slightly lower normal-state electron diffusion coefficient and higher magnetic penetration depth. Compared with MoGe, both WGe and WSi alloys exhibit larger normal-state electron diffusion coefficient and higher magnetic penetration depths. By studying the superconducting properties of three different amorphous thin films, this research provides new material choices and experimental evidence for developing and optimizing the performance of large-area, high-sensitivity superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors.

Keywords:
superconducting nanowire single photon detector /

amorphous superconducting thin film materials /

tungsten germanide /

superconducting physical properties
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图 1 零磁场下非晶薄膜WGe (a), WSi (b), MoGe (c)超导转变的厚度依赖关系; (d) WGe, WSi和MoGe薄膜的临界温度的厚度依赖性

Figure 1. Thickness dependence of normal to superconducting transition for amorphous WGe (a), WSi (b), MoGe (c) films in absence of magnetic field; (d) the critical temperatures as functions of the film thickness for WGe, WSi and MoGe.

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图 2 不同磁场下超导薄膜材料薄层电阻的温度依赖曲线　(a) 4 nm WGe; (b) 4 nm WSi; (c) 4 nm MoGe; (d) 100 nm WGe; (e) 100 nm WSi; (f) 100 nm MoGe

Figure 2. Temperature dependence of sheet resistance at different magnetic fields: (a) 4 nm WGe; (b) 4 nm WSi; (c) 4 nm MoGe; (d) 100 nm WGe; (e) 100 nm WSi; (f) 100 nm MoGe.

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图 3 不同厚度WGe (a), WSi (b)和MoGe (c)薄膜临界磁场的温度依赖曲线(通过对温度依赖曲线的线性拟合, 提取出绝对零度上临界磁场B_c2(0))

Figure 3. Critical magnetic field of WGe (a), WSi (b), MoGe (c) films (points) of different thickness as a function of temperature. Through linear fitting of these temperature dependence, the absolute zero critical magnetic field B_c2(0) are extracted.

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图 4 (a) 绝对零度下的GL相干长度ξ(0)与薄膜厚度的函数关系; (b) 正常态电子扩散系数D_e与薄膜厚度的函数关系; (c) 磁场穿透深度λ与薄膜厚度的函数关系

Figure 4. (a) The GL coherence length at absolute zero temperature ξ(0) as a function of film thickness; (b) thickness dependence of the diffusion constant of the electrons in the normal-conducting state; (c) the magnetic penetration depth λ(0) as a function of film thickness.

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表 1 不同厚度WGe薄膜材料的超导物性参数

Table 1. Superconducting physical property parameters of the WGe film with different thicknesses.

样品	d /nm	R_sn /Ω	T_c /K	ξ(0) /nm	D_e /(cm²·s^–1)	Δ(0) /meV	λ(0) /nm
WGe	4	471.25	3.84	10.55	0.76	0.58	734
	5	371.80	4.00	10.13	0.74	0.61	714
	10	185.30	4.55	9.54	0.71	0.69	668
	50	37.09	4.85	8.17	0.53	0.74	647
	100	18.49	4.92	7.95	0.50	0.75	642

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表 2 不同厚度WSi薄膜材料的超导物性参数

Table 2. Superconducting physical property parameters of the WSi film with different thicknesses.

样品	d /nm	R_sn /Ω	T_c /K	ξ(0) /nm	D_e /(cm²·s^–1)	Δ(0) /meV	λ(0) /nm
WSi	4	444.65	3.90	10.79	0.81	0.59	707
	5	354.90	4.12	10.48	0.80	0.63	687
	6	298.85	4.26	10.22	0.77	0.65	680
	8	221.84	4.44	9.80	0.73	0.67	662
	10	176.25	4.61	9.51	0.70	0.70	648
	20	88.31	4.81	9.19	0.68	0.73	635
	30	57.95	4.87	8.83	0.62	0.74	626
	50	35.47	4.91	8.48	0.57	0.75	630
	100	17.65	4.94	8.27	0.55	0.75	626

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表 3 不同厚度MoGe薄膜材料的超导物性参数

Table 3. Superconducting physical property parameters of the MoGe film with different thicknesses.

样品	d /nm	R_sn /Ω	T_c /K	ξ(0) /nm	D_e /(cm²·s^–1)	Δ(0) /meV	λ(0) /nm
MoGe	4	378.75	5.31	8.14	0.62	0.81	560
	5	298.30	5.96	7.66	0.60	0.91	524
	8	186.59	6.37	7.42	0.60	0.97	507
	10	148.76	6.61	7.25	0.59	1.00	497
	20	74.15	7.03	6.73	0.53	1.07	481
	30	49.12	7.14	6.54	0.50	1.09	476
	100	14.52	7.28	6.18	0.46	1.11	468

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