Superconducting nanowires by electron-beam-induced deposition

Superconducting nanowires can be fabricated by decomposition of an organometallic gas using a focused beam of Ga ions. However, physical damage and unintentional doping often result from the exposure to the ion beam, motivating the search for a means to achieve similar structures with a beam of electrons instead of ions. This has so far remained an experimental challenge. We report the fabrication of superconducting tungsten nanowires by electron-beam-induced-deposition, with critical temperature of 2.0 K and critical magnetic field of 3.7 T, and compare them with superconducting wires made with ions. This work is an important development for the template-free realization of nanoscale superconducting devices, without the requirement of an ion beam column.
We thank Odile Kaitasov, Mandar Deshmukh, and Richard Deblock for discussions, and Laurent Delbecq for help during the course of the work. This work was supported by ANR Supergraph.