Microwave kinetic inductance and fluctuation conductivity of disordered and granular superconductors

Author: Pusskeiler, Jan

Affiliation: University of Stuttgart

Type: Poster

Display Dates: 20.07.2026 - 21.07.2026

Board: MT-085

Kinetic inductance 𝐿kin quantifies the low-temperature electrodynamics of superconducting microwave circuitry. We directly probe the inductive response in the broadband reactance of superconducting granular aluminum and titanium nitride from MHz to GHz frequencies, Im(𝑍) = 𝜔 · 𝐿kin, by broadband Corbino reflectometry. Furthermore, we observe an unconventional collective mode featuring an acoustic dispersion relation for up to 10 harmonics, which enables us to obtain the kinetic inductance independently. We report low-temperature kinetic inductances up to 29 nH/sq for a titanium nitride thin film in the vicinity of the superconductor-insulator transition. We calculate the low-temperature superfluid stiffness 𝐽0 and find it converging to 𝑇c, consistent with a phase-driven superconducting transition.

At elevated temperatures we observe that the superfluid stiffness deviates from the two-fluid expectation of continuous suppression. This happens in the vicinity of the Kosterlitz-Thouless universal line. The superfluid stiffness acquires a strong frequency dependence, which we interpret as a signature of phase fluctuations of the superconducting condensate.