Niobium nitride explained

Niobium nitride is a compound of niobium and nitrogen (nitride) with the chemical formula NbN. At low temperatures (about 16 K) NbN becomes a superconductor, and is used in detectors for infrared light.^[1] ^[2] ^[3]

Uses

Niobium nitride's main use is as a superconductor.
- Detectors based on it can detect a single photon in the 1-10 micrometer section of the infrared spectrum,^[4] which is important for astronomy and telecommunications. It can detect changes up to 25 gigahertz.
- Superconducting NbN nanowires can be used in particle detectors with high magnetic fields.^[5]
Niobium nitride is also used in absorbing anti-reflective coatings.
In 2015, it was reported that Panasonic Corp. has developed a photocatalyst based on niobium nitride that can absorb 57% of sunlight to support the decomposition of water to produce hydrogen gas as fuel for electrochemical fuel cells.^[6]

Y. M. Shy, L. E. Toth and R. Somasundaram . Superconducting properties, electrical resistivities, and structure of NbN thin films . 1973 . . 44 . 12 . 5539–5545 . 10.1063/1.1662193 . 1973JAP....44.5539S .
J. W. Kooi . J. J. A. Baselmans . M. Hajenius . J. R. Gao . T. M. Klapwijk . P. Dieleman . A. Baryshev . G. de Lange . IF impedance and mixer gain of NbN hot electron bolometers . 2007 . . 101 . 4 . 044511 . 10.1063/1.2400086 . 2007JAP...101d4511K .
S. P. Chockalingam . Madhavi Chand . John Jesudasan . Vikram Tripathi . Pratap Raychaudhuri . Superconducting properties and Hall effect in epitaxial NbN thin films . 2009 . . 77 . 21 . 214503 . 10.1103/PhysRevB.77.214503 . 0804.2945. 2008PhRvB..77u4503C . 14097116 .
M Hajenius, J J A Baselmans, J R Gao, T M Klapwijk, P A J de Korte, B Voronov and G Gol'tsman . Low noise NbN superconducting hot electron bolometer mixers at 1.9 and 2.5 THz . 2004 . . 17 . 5 . S224–S228 . 10.1088/0953-2048/17/5/026 . 2004SuScT..17S.224H . 250740737 .
Web site: When superconductivity material science meets nuclear physics. phys.org. 9 June 2020.
News: Yamamura. Tetsushi. Panasonic moves closer to home energy self-sufficiency with fuel cells. Asahi Shimbun. August 2, 2015. 2015-08-02. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20150807010324/http://ajw.asahi.com/article/sci_tech/technology/AJ201508020014. August 7, 2015.