Investigation of Field-Induced Pair-Breaking Effects in Superconducting ZrN via THz-TDS

Author: Park, Bumchan

Affiliation: Yonsei University, Republic of Korea

Type: Poster

Display Dates: 20.07.2026 - 21.07.2026

Board: MT-100

We explored the superconducting properties of transition-metal nitride (TMN) thin films using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). TMNs, such as TiN, TaN, and ZrN, have attracted significant interest due to their robust superconducting properties and potential for quantum applications. We measured the complex optical conductivity of ZrN thin films at 1.6 K under external magnetic fields up to 7 T, applied in both out-of-plane and in-plane configurations. The measured conductivity spectra revealed a distinct dependence on the field orientation, primarily originating from the vortex contribution in the out-of-plane direction. To quantitatively evaluate the field-induced pair-breaking effect, we extracted the pair-breaking parameter from the optical conductivity spectra based on the Skalski-Betbeder-Matibet-Weiss (SBW) theory. Our findings provide fundamental insights into the superconducting response of ZrN, specifically regarding the pair-breaking effect under different external field directions.