The Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition in ultra-thin NbN films is investigated in the presence of weak perpendicular magnetic fields. A jump in the phase stiffness at the BKT transition is detected up to 5 G, while the BKT features are smeared between 5 G and 50 G, disappearing altogether at 100 G, where conventional current-voltage behaviour is observed. Our findings demonstrate that weak magnetic fields, insignificant in bulk systems, deeply affect our ultra-thin system, promoting a crossover from Halperin-Nelson fluctuations to a BCS-like state with Ginzburg-Landau fluctuations, as the field increases. This behavior is related to field-induced free vortices that screen the vortex-antivortex interaction and smear the BKT transition.
@article{arxiv.2403.11685,
title = {Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless to BCS-like superconducting transition crossover driven by weak magnetic fields in ultra-thin NbN films},
author = {Meenakshi Sharma and Sergio Caprara and Andrea Perali and Surinder P. Singh and Sandeep Singh and Matteo Fretto and Natascia De Leo and Nicola Pinto},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2403.11685},
year = {2024}
}