Interaction of physisorbed oxygen with thin superconducting tin films

Abstract The influence of oxygen, adsorbed on thin tin films at liquid helium temperature, on the superconducting transition temperature of the metal film was studied. At this temperature oxygen is adsorbed as O 2 molecules. At higher degrees of coverage, antiferromagnetically coupled (O 2 ) 2 is formed. The observed phenomena and the quantitative results are interpreted as an interaction of the localized oxygen spins with the spins of the conduction electrons of the metal underneath.