Superconducting properties of Nb thin films deposited on porous silicon templates

Porous silicon, obtained by electrochemical etching, has been used as a substrate for the growth of nanoperforated Nb thin films. The films, deposited by UHV magnetron sputtering on the porous Si substrates, inherited their structure made of holes of 5 or 10 nm diameter and of 10-40 nm spacing, which provide an artificial pinning structure. The superconducting properties were investigated by transport measurements performed in the presence of magnetic field for different film thickness and substrates with different interpore spacing. Perpendicular upper critical fields measurements present peculiar features such as a change in the H-c2 perpendicular to (T) curvature and oscillations in the field dependence of the superconducting resistive transition width at H approximate to 1 T. This field value is much higher than typical matching fields in perforated superconductors, as a consequence of the small interpore distance. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3006014]