High-uniformity atomic layer deposition of superconducting niobium nitride thin films for quantum photonic integration

Abstract

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has been identified as a promising growth method for high-uniformity superconducting thin films for superconducting quantum photonic applications, offering superior uniformity, thickness control and conformality to techniques such as reactive sputtering. The potential scalability of ALD makes this method especially appealing for fabrication of superconducting nanowires and resonators across large areas. We report on the growth of highly uniform superconducting NbN thin films via plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) with radio frequency substrate biasing, on a 200 mm (8 inch) Si wafer, specifically for superconducting nanowire single-photon detector applications. Niobium nitride films were grown using (tert-butylimido)-tris(diethylamido)-niobium(V) precursor and an H _2 /Ar plasma. The superconducting properties of a variable thickness series of films (5.9–29.8 nm) show critical temperature ( T _c ) of 13.5 K approaching bulk thickness (28.8 nm) with low suppression down to the ultrathin regime (5.9 nm), with T _c = 10.2 K. T _c across the 200 mm wafer with 8 nm thick NbN, measured in 15 mm intervals, exhibits minimal variation ( 10 MA cm ^−2 at 2.6 K. PEALD could therefore be a pivotal technique in enabling large-scale fabrication of integrated quantum photonic devices across a variety of applications.

Keywords

• atomic layer deposition
• superconducting thin films
• niobium nitride
• superconducting quantum detectors
• quantum photonics