MIT researchers have developed a method to grow ultrathin superconducting niobium diselenide at wafer scale while keeping it air-stable. By growing the material underneath a graphene layer placed on a silicon dioxide substrate, the graphene simultaneously protects the fragile superconductor from oxidation and guides it to form a uniform monolayer over an inch in size. The team also developed an oxidation-free transfer technique and a method to integrate the thin film into superconducting microwave circuits without degrading its properties. The resulting material maintains superconducting behavior and exhibits high kinetic inductance, a key resource for compact quantum devices. The approach could eventually miniaturize superconducting quantum computing hardware and enable ultrasensitive quantum detectors for communications and cosmology.
