Superconducting fluctuations in a thin NbN film probed by the Hall effect

Abstract

We present a comprehensive study of how superconducting fluctuations in the normal state contribute to the conductivity tensor in a thin (119 Å) film of NbN. It is shown how these fluctuations drive a sign change in the Hall coefficient RH for low magnetic fields near the superconducting transition. The scaling behaviors as a function of distance to the transition ϵ=ln(T/Tc) of the longitudinal (σxx) and transverse (σxy) conductivity are found to be consistent with Gaussian fluctuation theory. Moreover, excellent quantitative agreement between theory and experiment is obtained without any adjustable parameters. Our experimental results thus provide a case study of the conductivity tensor originating from short-lived Cooper pairs.