Nernst effect and its thickness dependence in superconducting NbN films

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Bouteiller, Thomas, Marguerite, Arthur, Daou, Ramzy, Yakovlev, Dmitry, Pons, Stéphane, Feuillet-Palma, Cheryl, Roditchev, Dimitri, Fauqué, Benoît, Behnia, Kamran
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Bouteiller, Thomas
Marguerite, Arthur
Daou, Ramzy
Yakovlev, Dmitry
Pons, Stéphane
Feuillet-Palma, Cheryl
Roditchev, Dimitri
Fauqué, Benoît
Behnia, Kamran
author_facet Bouteiller, Thomas
Marguerite, Arthur
Daou, Ramzy
Yakovlev, Dmitry
Pons, Stéphane
Feuillet-Palma, Cheryl
Roditchev, Dimitri
Fauqué, Benoît
Behnia, Kamran
contents Superconducting thin films and layered crystals display a Nernst signal generated by short-lived Cooper pairs above their critical temperature. Several experimental studies have broadly verified the standard theory invoking Gaussian fluctuations of a two-dimensional superconducting order parameter. Here, we present a study of the Nernst effect in granular NbN thin films with a thickness varying from 4 to 30 nm, exceeding the short superconducting coherence length and putting the system in the three-dimensional limit. We find that the Nernst conductivity decreases linearly with reduced temperature ($α_{xy}\propto \frac{T-T_c}{T_c}$), but the amplitude of $α_{xy}$ scales with thickness. While the temperature dependence corresponds to what is expected in a 2D picture, scaling with thickness corresponds to a 3D picture. We argue that this behavior indicates a 2+1D situation, in which the relevant coherence length along the thickness of the film has no temperature dependence. We find no visible discontinuity in the temperature dependence of the Nernst conductivity across T$_c$. Explaining how the response of the superconducting vortices evolves to the one above the critical temperature of short-lived Cooper pairs emerges as a challenge to the theory.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_03975
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Nernst effect and its thickness dependence in superconducting NbN films
Bouteiller, Thomas
Marguerite, Arthur
Daou, Ramzy
Yakovlev, Dmitry
Pons, Stéphane
Feuillet-Palma, Cheryl
Roditchev, Dimitri
Fauqué, Benoît
Behnia, Kamran
Superconductivity
Superconducting thin films and layered crystals display a Nernst signal generated by short-lived Cooper pairs above their critical temperature. Several experimental studies have broadly verified the standard theory invoking Gaussian fluctuations of a two-dimensional superconducting order parameter. Here, we present a study of the Nernst effect in granular NbN thin films with a thickness varying from 4 to 30 nm, exceeding the short superconducting coherence length and putting the system in the three-dimensional limit. We find that the Nernst conductivity decreases linearly with reduced temperature ($α_{xy}\propto \frac{T-T_c}{T_c}$), but the amplitude of $α_{xy}$ scales with thickness. While the temperature dependence corresponds to what is expected in a 2D picture, scaling with thickness corresponds to a 3D picture. We argue that this behavior indicates a 2+1D situation, in which the relevant coherence length along the thickness of the film has no temperature dependence. We find no visible discontinuity in the temperature dependence of the Nernst conductivity across T$_c$. Explaining how the response of the superconducting vortices evolves to the one above the critical temperature of short-lived Cooper pairs emerges as a challenge to the theory.
title Nernst effect and its thickness dependence in superconducting NbN films
topic Superconductivity
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.03975