Fabrication and properties of the meander nanowires based on ultra-thin Nb films

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/23/8/087402

Abstract We report the fabrication and the study of superconducting properties of ultra-thin Nb superconducting meander nanowires, which can be used as superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs). The ultra-thin (about 7-nm thick) Nb films are patterned into micro-bridges, and 100-nm wide meander nanowires by using e-beam lithography (EBL). The average transition temperature (T_c) of the nanowires is about 4.8 K and the critical current density j_c is about 2.8× 10⁶ A/cm². Superconducting characteristics of the specimens at different applied magnetic fields up to 8 T (parallel or perpendicular to the specimen) are systematically investigated. The normalized temperature t (=T/T_c) dependences of the parallel critical field (H_c||) for both the micro-bridge and the meander nanowire are almost the same, following the Ginzburg and Landau (GL) formalism for ultra-thin films. However, in perpendicular field and in the vicinity of T_c (>0.95T_c), the critical field H_c⊥ of the nanowire exhibits a down-turn curvature nonlinear temperature dependence while the micro-bridge displays a linear temperature dependence. The nonlinear behavior of H_c⊥ in the nanowire is believed to be due to the fact that in the vicinity of T_c the coherence length becomes larger than the line width. Additionally, the localization of carriers in the nanowire could also contribute to the nonlinear behavior. The resistive transitions could be described by the phase-slip model for quasi-one-dimensional system. Moreover, the hysteresis in I-V curve of the meander nanowires can be illustrated by a simple model of localized normal hotspot maintained by Joule heating.

Keywords: Nb meander nanowire critical temperature critical field critical current

Received: 07 April 2014
Revised: 23 April 2014
Accepted manuscript online:

PACS:	74.78.-w	(Superconducting films and low-dimensional structures)
	74.25.F-	(Transport properties)
	81.16.Rf	(Micro- and nanoscale pattern formation)
	81.07.Gf	(Nanowires)

Fund: Project supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (Grant Nos. 2011CBA00106 and 2009CB929102) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11104333 and 10974243).

Corresponding Authors: Zheng Dong-Ning
E-mail: dzheng@iphy.ac.cn

Cite this article:

Zhao Lu (赵璐), Jin Yi-Rong (金贻荣), Li Jie (李洁), Deng Hui (邓辉), Zheng Dong-Ning (郑东宁) Fabrication and properties of the meander nanowires based on ultra-thin Nb films 2014 Chin. Phys. B 23 087402

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Fabrication and properties of the meander nanowires based on ultra-thin Nb films

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