Tuning the superconducting dome in granular aluminum thin films

Abstract

The peculiar superconducting properties of granular aluminum, which consists of nanometer-sized aluminum grains separated by aluminum oxide, are attractive for applications in quantum circuitry, and they are interesting from a fundamental materials physics view. The phase diagram of granular aluminum as a function of normal-state resistivity features a superconducting dome with a maximum critical temperature Tc well above the Tc=1.2K of pure aluminum. Here, we show how the maximum Tc of this superconducting dome grows if the substrate temperature during deposition is lowered from 300 K to cooling with liquid nitrogen (150 and 100 K) and liquid helium (25 K). The highest Tc that we observe is 3.27 K. These results highlight that granular aluminum is a model system for complex phase diagrams of superconductors and demonstrate its potential in the context of high kinetic inductance applications. This is augmented by our observation of comparably sharp superconducting transitions of high-resistivity samples grown at cryogenic temperatures and by a thickness dependence even for films substantially thicker than the grain size.