Superconductivity in highly disordered NbN nanowires

The topic of superconductivity in strongly disordered materials has attracted significant attention. These materials appear to be rather promising for fabrication of various nanoscale devices such as bolometers and transition edge sensors of electromagnetic radiation. The vividly debated subject of intrinsic spatial inhomogeneity responsible for the non-Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer relation between the superconducting gap and the pairing potential is crucial both for understanding the fundamental issues of superconductivity in highly disordered superconductors, and for the operation of corresponding nanoelectronic devices. Here we report an experimental study of the electron transport properties of narrow NbN nanowires with effective cross sections of the order of the debated inhomogeneity scales. The temperature dependence of the critical current follows the textbook Ginzburg–Landau prediction for the quasi-one-dimensional superconducting channel I _c ∼ (1 -T / T _c)^3/2. We find that conventional models based on the the phase slip mechanism provide reasonable fits for the shape of R ( T ) transitions. Better agreement with R ( T ) data can be achieved assuming the existence of short 'weak links' with slightly reduced local critical temperature T _c. Hence, one may conclude that an 'exotic' intrinsic electronic inhomogeneity either does not exist in our structures, or, if it does exist, it does not affect their resistive state properties, or does not provide any specific impact distinguishable from conventional weak links. (letter)