Thin amorphous molybdenum silicide superconducting shells around individual nanowires deposited via magnetron co-sputtering

Abstract Employing amorphous superconductors, such as type-II molybdenum silicide (MoSi), instead of crystalline materials significantly simplifies the material deposition and scalable nanoscale prototyping, beneficial for quantum electronic and photonic device fabrication. In this work, deposition of amorphous superconductive MoSi thin films on flat and nanowire (NW) substrates was demonstrated via pulsed direct-current magnetron co-sputtering from molybdenum and silicon targets in an argon atmosphere. MoSi films were deposited on oxidized silicon wafers and Ga ₂ O ₃ NWs with 6 nm Al ₂ O ₃ insulating shell, grown around the NWs using atomic layer deposition, and studied using scanning and transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Four-point Cr/Au electrical contacts were defined on the thin films and on individual Ga ₂ O ₃ –Al ₂ O ₃ –MoSi core–shell NWs using lithography for low-temperature electrical measurements. By controlling the sputtering power of the targets and thus adjusting the molybdenum-to-silicon ratio in the MoSi films, their properties were optimized to achieve critical temperature T _c of 7.25 K. Such superconducting shell NWs could provide new avenues for fundamental studies and interfacing with other materials for quantum device applications.