Erratum: “Thermal annealing of superconducting niobium titanium nitride thin films deposited by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition” [J. Appl. Phys. 134(3), 035301 (2023)]

As the authors, it is our responsibility to initiate a correction of the article. Regrettably, during estimating the lower critical field Hc1 at 2 K based on our linear regression analysis [Fig. 7(b)], we introduced a typographical error in the computational function in our data analysis software (specifically, selecting the wrong column). Instead of using the reduced value [1-(T/Tc)2], we directly inserted T in the fit function. This error resulted in all calculated values being erroneously more than doubled. Herein, we have corrected all affected values and replaced Fig. 7(b). As a consequence of this correction, we have also adjusted and reevaluated a few statements in our manuscript when comparing our findings with the existing literature. This was necessary to ensure the accuracy and consistency of our work with the revised data. In the following all corrected results and statements are listed point-by-point. Abstract: We inserted the right value and deleted the statement of exceeding the critical field of niobium. The corrected sentence is the following: “It has been demonstrated that an optimized post-deposition thermal annealing procedure significantly improves the quality of our PEALD deposited Nb0.75Ti0.25N thin films, achieving the highest superconducting critical temperature (Tc) of 15.9 K obtained for films deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) so far and a lower critical field (Hc1) of 98mT. Our studies are a promising stepping stone on the path toward tailored thin films based SRF cavities.” Results and Discussion: We inserted the right values for the lower critical field and replaced the claim of surpassing literature values with one stating that we are in line with them. The revised paragraph is the following: “The as-deposited film exhibits a µ0Hc1 of 15 mT. The thermal treatments significantly increase µ0Hc1, reaching 81 mT after RTA and 98 mT after STA. Our results are in agreement with the previously reported µ0Hc1 = 120 mT for the same composition of NbTiN films deposited by PEALD13 and the values for sputtered films by Burton et al.,48 who reported 83 and 200 mT for Nb0.7Ti0.3N and Nb0.8Ti0.2N, respectively.” Moreover, the superscripted 2 is not a reference but rather the exponent of the formula given before the punctuation. It has to be “Fig. 7(b) depicts µ0Hc1 vs 1-(T/Tc)2.” Figure 7 and the corresponding figure caption have to be replaced. Instead of the values for 2 K, now we give the fit function for the three different samples. Conclusion:We inserted the right value and replaced the claim of surpassing literature values with one stating that we are in line with them. The last sentence of the manuscript is now as follows: “It has been demonstrated that postdeposition thermal treatment improves our films’ crystallinity and superconducting properties, achieving the highest Tc of 15.9 K so far by ALD and a lower critical field value µ0Hc1 of 98 mT. These results are another stepping stone on the path toward AlN–NbTiN SIS multilayer coatings by PEALD on SRF cavities”. (Figure Presented).