| Abstract |
We analyze the evolution of the normal and superconducting electronic properties in epitaxial TiN films, characterized by high Ioffe-Regel parameter values, as a function of the film thickness. As the film thickness decreases, we observe an increase of in the residual resistivity, which becomes dominated by diffusive surface scattering for d≤20nm. At the same time, a substantial thickness-dependent reduction of the superconducting critical temperature is observed compared to the bulk TiN value. In such a high quality material films, this effect can be explained by a weak magnetic disorder residing in the surface layer with a characteristic magnetic defect density of ∼1012cm−2. Our results suggest that surface magnetic disorder is generally present in oxidized TiN films. |
