The electrical and structural properties of granular superconducting Sn onInSb(110)

This study shows an influence of morphology on the superconducting properti es of thin granular Sn films (40-100 nm) measured in a wide temperature ran ge (2-300 K) and up to 8 T extended magnetic field. The films were evaporat ed under UHV conditions onto a cleaved InSb(1 1 0) surface at room temperat ure. We have investigated the morphology of the Sn films with several metho ds (LEED, AES, AFM, Raman) and used DC-conductivity, AC- and DC-susceptibil ity measurements to determine the critical temperature and the upper critic al field. We observe a decrease of the superconducting critical temperature and an angular dependence of the upper critical field. (C) 2000 Elsevier S cience B.V. All rights reserved.