• 한국초전도ㆍ저온공학회논문지
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.1-5
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• 2021

We have investigated the electrical transport properties of polycrystalline tantalum nitride (TaN_x) films. Various compositions of tantalum (nitride) thin films have been deposited on SiO₂ substrates by reactive DC magnetron sputtering while changing the ratio of nitrogen partial pressure. The substrate temperature was maintained at 283 K during deposition. X-ray diffraction analyses indicated the presence of α-Ta and β-Ta phases in the Ta film deposited in pure argon atmosphere, while fcc-TaN_x phases appeared in the sputtering gas mixture of argon and nitrogen. The N/Ta atomic ratio in the film increased ranging from 0.36 to 1.07 for nitrogen partial pressure from 7 to 20.7%. The superconducting transition temperatures of the TaN_x thin films were measured to be greater than 3.86 K with a maximum of 5.34 K. The electrical resistivity of TaN_x thin film was in the range of 177-577 𝜇Ωcm and increased with an increase in nitrogen content. The upper critical filed at zero temperature for a TaN_0.87 thin film was estimated to exceed 11.3 T, while it showed the lowest T_c = 3.86 K among the measured superconducting TaN_x thin films. We try to explain the behavior of the increase of the residual resistivity and the upper critical field for TaN_x thin films with the nitrogen content by using the combined role of the intergrain Coulomb effect and disorder effect by grain boundaries.