Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition in an Al superconducting nanofilm grown on GaAs by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract We have performed extensive transport experiments on a 4 nm thick aluminum (Al) superconducting film grown on a GaAs substrate by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Nonlinear current–voltage ( I – V ) measurements on such a MBE-grown superconducting nanofilm show that V ∼ I ³ , which is evidence for the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless (BKT) transition, both in the low-voltage ( T _BKT ≈ 1.97 K) and high-voltage regions ( T _BKT ≈ 2.17 K). In order to further study the two regions where the I – V curves are BKT-like, our experimental data are fitted to the temperature-induced vortices/antivortices unbinding model as well as the dynamical scaling theory. It is found that the transition temperature obtained in the high-voltage region is the correct T _BKT as confirmed by fitting the data to the aforementioned models. Our experimental results unequivocally show that I – V measurements alone may not allow one to determine T _BKT for superconducting transition. Therefore, one should try to fit one’s results to the temperature-induced vortices/antivortices unbinding model and the dynamical scaling theory to accurately determine T _BKT in a two-dimensional superconductor.