Observation of a superconducting glass state in granular superconducting diamond

The magnetic field dependence of the superconductivity in nanocrystalline boron doped diamond thin films is reported. Evidence of a superconducting glass state is presented, as demonstrated by the observation of a quasi de Almeida-Thouless line in the phase diagram and a logarithmic time dependence of the magnetism. The position of the phase boundary in the H-T plane is determined from electrical transport data by detailed fitting to quasi-zero-dimensional fluctuation conductivity theory. This allows determination of the boundary between resistive and non-resistive behaviour to be made with greater precision than the standard ad hoc onset/midpoint/offset criterion. We attribute the glassy superconductivity to the morphological granularity of the diamond films.