Effect of the nitrogen-argon gas mixtures on the superconductivity properties of reactively sputtered molybdenum nitride thin films

摘要

We report on the superconducting properties of molybdenum nitride thin filmsgrown by reactive DC sputtering at room temperature with a N2:Ar mixture. Thinfilms grown using 5 % N2 concentration display Tc = 8 K, which is graduallyreduced and abruptly disappears for 40 % N2 concentration. This suppression canbe associated with changes in the nitrogen stoichiometry from Mo2N to MoN. Ourresults provide an effective and simple path to prepare Mo2Nx thin films withtunable Tc, which is relevant for the investigation of the fundamentalproperties and for technological applications.