Confinement of superconducting fluctuations due to emergent electronic inhomogeneities

TL;DR

This study investigates how electronic inhomogeneities in ultrathin NbN films influence superconducting fluctuations, revealing a transition from 2D to zero-dimensional behavior linked to inhomogeneity scale, shedding light on the nature of the insulating state near superconductivity.

Contribution

The paper provides experimental evidence of nanoscopic electronic inhomogeneities affecting superconducting fluctuations in ultrathin films, bridging the gap between Fermi and Bose insulator models.

Findings

Thinner films exhibit zero-dimensional superconducting fluctuation behavior.

Emergence of electronic inhomogeneities with reduced film thickness.

Transition from 2D to zero-dimensional fluctuation regimes observed.

Abstract

The microscopic nature of an insulating state in the vicinity of a superconducting state, in the presence of disorder, is a hotly debated question. While the simplest scenario proposes that Coulomb interactions destroy the Cooper pairs at the transition, leading to localization of single electrons, an alternate possibility supported by experimental observations suggests that Cooper pairs instead directly localize. The question of the homogeneity, granularity, or possibly glassiness of the material on the verge of this transition is intimately related to this fundamental issue. Here, by combining macroscopic and nano-scale studies of superconducting ultrathin NbN films, we reveal nanoscopic electronic inhomogeneities that emerge when the film thickness is reduced. In addition, while thicker films display a purely two-dimensional behaviour in the superconducting fluctuations, we demonstrate a zero-dimensional regime for the thinner samples precisely on the scale of the inhomogeneities. Such behavior is somehow intermediate between the Fermi and Bose insulator paradigms and calls for further investigation to understand the way Cooper pairs continuously evolve from a bound state of fermionic objects into localized bosonic entities.