Phase fluctuations in a conventional s-wave superconductor: Role of dimensionality and disorder

Abstract

As a part of my doctoral thesis, I studied the effect of phase fluctuations in two dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) superconducting films of conventional s-wave superconductor, NbN, by measuring the electrodynamics response through magnetic penetration depth at low frequency and the complex conductivity at microwave frequencies. We show that the phase transition in 2D or quasi-2D superconductors can be reconciled with the standard Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition when the small vortex core energy is taken into consideration. In 3D NbN films, we show that in presence of strong disorder, superconductivity can get destroyed by phase fluctuations even if Cooper pairs continue to survive in the system. Our study provides a paradigmatic picture of importance of phase fluctuations in 2D and strongly disordered 3D superconductors.