Upper critical field of niobium nitride thin films

Abstract

The temperature dependences of the superconducting transition of niobium nitride (NbN) thin films have been investigated via the first harmonic of the voltage in dc magnetic fields of up to 8 T. The temperature dependence of the second critical field of NbN has been determined. The parameter responsible for the effect of spin paramagnetism in this material and the temperature dependence of the upper critical field that describes well the experimental data have been found in terms of the Werthamer–Helfand–Hohenberg (WHH) theory. The key parameters of the superconductor have been estimated from the transport and optical measurements.