Spontaneous formation of superconducting NiBi3 phase in Ni-Bi bilayer films

Abstract

We report the spontaneous formation of superconducting NiBi3 phase in thermally evaporated Ni-Bi bilayer films. High reaction-diffusion coefficient of Bi is believed to drive the formation of NiBi3 during the deposition of Bi on the Ni film. Cross sectional transmission electron microscopy and glancing incidence X-ray depth profiling confirmed the presence of NiBi3 throughout the top Bi layer. Superconducting transition at ∼3.9 K, close to the bulk value, was confirmed by transport and magnetization measurements. The bilayers were irradiated with varying fluence of 100 MeV Au ions to study the robustness of superconducting order in presence of large concentration of defects. Superconducting parameters of NiBi3, such as transition temperature and upper critical field, remained unchanged upto an ion dose of 1 × 1014 ions/cm2. The diffusive formation of NiBi3 in Ni opens the possibility of studying superconducting proximity effect at a truly clean superconductor-ferromagnet interface.