Niobium nitride (NbN) is widely used in high-frequency superconducting electronics circuits because it has one of the highest superconducting transition temperatures ( T c ∼ 16.5 K ) and largest gap among conventional superconductors. In its thin-film form, the T _c of NbN is very sensitive to growth conditions and it still remains a challenge to grow NbN thin films (below 50 nm) with high T _c . Here, we report on the superconducting properties of NbN thin films grown by high-temperature chemical vapor deposition (HTCVD). Transport measurements reveal significantly lower disorder than previously reported, characterized by a Ioffe–Regel parameter ( k F ℓ ) ∼ 12. Accordingly we observe T c ∼ 17.06 K (point of 50% of normal state resistance), the highest value reported so far for films of thickness 50 nm or less, indicating that HTCVD could be particularly useful for growing high quality NbN thin films.

The lack of single crystalline ${\text{Ti}}_3{\text{SiC}}_2$ samples is currently limiting the accurate measurement of its basic properties as its layered crystalline structure presents a very strong anisotropy. In this letter, we report the growth of pure ${\text{Ti}}_3{\text{SiC}}_2$ single crystals after a careful study of the ${\text{Ti}}_3{\text{SiC}}_2$ liquidus surface extent through thermodynamical calculations. From a Raman scattering study on those single crystals, an unambiguous assignment of most of the phonon modes has been established, giving an answer to the discrepancies existing in the literature.

Titanium nitride (TiN) films were grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) from titanium chlorides, ammonia (NH₃) and hydrogen (H₂) on single crystal c-plane sapphire, WC–Co, stainless steel and amorphous graphite substrates. The preferred orientation and color of TiN layer are studied by combining a simplified kinetic model with experiments.