Molecular beam epitaxy creates vacancy-ordered NbO films with critical temperatures up to 1.37 K, highlighting Al2O3 as the optimal substrate.
We report molecular beam epitaxy synthesis of vacancy-ordered rocksalt NbO thin films which display superconductivity. A comparative study of substrates identifies Al₂O₃ (0001) as the optimal platform for realizing high-quality, single-phase films when growing at temperatures exceeding 1000 ^∘C. The controlled NbO films exhibit superconductivity with critical temperatures up to Tc = 1.37 K, comparable to bulk single crystals. This work addresses the fundamental bottlenecks encountered in the high-temperature epitaxy of compounds with uncommon oxidation states, while expanding the scope of available thin-film superconductors.
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Kim et al. (2025) studied this question.
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