Enhanced Cooper pairing versus suppressed phase coherence shaping the superconducting dome in coupled aluminum nanograins

The development of the fundamental superconducting (SC) energy scales - the SC energy gap Δ and the superfluid stiffness J - of granular aluminum, i.e., thin films composed of coupled nanograins, is studied by means of optical THz spectroscopy. Starting from well-coupled grains, Δ grows as the grains are progressively decoupled, causing the unconventional increase of Tc with sample resistivity. When the grain coupling is suppressed further, Δ saturates while the critical temperature Tc decreases, concomitantly with a sharp decline of J, delimiting a SC dome in the phase diagram. This crossover to a phase-driven SC transition is accompanied by an optical gap surviving into the normal state above Tc. We demonstrate that granular aluminum is an ideal testbed to understand the interplay between quantum confinement and global SC phase coherence due to nanoinhomogeneity.