Nanopowder Compounds

Niobium nitride nanopowder is mainly used as a superconductor. Detectors based on it can detect a single photon in the 1-10 micrometer section of the infrared spectrum, which is important for astronomy and telecommunications. It can detect changes up to 25 gigahertz. Niobium nitride is also used in absorbing anti-reflective coatings.

Niobium nitride nanopowder (NbN) coatings have many interesting properties such as chemical inertness, excellent mechanical properties, high electrical conductivity, high melting point, and a superconducting transition temperature between 16 and 17 K. For this reason, these compounds have many potential thin-film applications.

The different phases of niobium nitride exhibit unique properties which make it a very promising candidate for many applications. For instance, Niobium nitride nanopowder possesses high hardness, a high melting point, and superconducting properties. Most of the niobium nitride phase show superconducting properties in the range of 9-17 K depending on their crystal structure.

Niobium nitride nanopowder is the best choice for fabricating efficient superconducting single-photon detectors for the visible and near-infrared spectrum. Since these detectors have an excellent time resolution and a high signal-to-noise ratio, their application ranges from low photon flux astronomy to quantum cryptography and quantum information processing.

Niobium (Nb) is the most commonly used material in superconducting electronics [1-3], but several groups have been investigating the properties of metals and alloys that could represent an alternative to it. Niobium nitride, in particular, is a promising material in this respect given its relatively high critical temperature and energy gap of the order, respectively, of 16 K and 2.5 mV. The transition temperature is appealing because of the progress achieved in closed-cycle refrigeration, while the value of the gap is stimulating for engineering devices in the terahertz range.