Fabrication and charcterizarion of superconductor YBCO Josephson junctions

Thesis (Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Physics, Izmir, 2008Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 68-72)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxi, 72 leavesA well-controlled, high-yield Josephson junction production process forms the basis of superconducting electronic device and circuit technology. In order to use the Josephson junctions effectively and fabricate them reproducibly, their structural and electrical characterization should be performed.This study concentrates on the fabrication and characterization of high temperature bicrystal grain boundary Josephson junctions fabricated onto 24-dand 30-degree SrTiO3 bicrystal substrates using high quality YBa2Cu3O7-. (YBCO) thin-films.200 nm thick YBCO thin films were deposited using a dc Inverted Cylindrical Magnetron Sputtering technique by investigating the thin film deposition conditions in order to obtain device quality films. The superconducting properties of the thin films were determined by electrical characterizations, consisting of resistance versus temperature and magnetic susceptibility versus temperature measurements. Structural properties were analyzed by Atomic Force Microscope, Scanning Electron Microscope and X-Ray Diffraction.Prepared thin film samples were patterned as bicrystal grain boundary Josephson junctions by standard photolithography and chemical etching processes. The current-voltage characteristics of the Josephson junctions were performed at 77 K under zero and non-zero applied field in magnetically shielded environment. The critical current values (Ic), normal resistance (Rn) and IcRn product of the output signals were determined, and the values were discussed as function of the film growth conditions. The optimization of the Josephson junctions was performed in order to improve both the signal performance and the stability of our devices against thermal cycling

High-temperature superconducting magnetometers for on-scalp MEG

In the growing field of on-scalp magnetoencephalography (MEG), brain activity is studied by non-invasively mapping the magnetic fields generated by neuronal currents with sensors that are flexibly placed in close proximity to the subject\u27s head. This thesis focuses on high-temperature superconducting magnetometers made from YBa2Cu3Ox-7 (YBCO), which enables a reduction in the sensor-to-room temperature standoff distance from roughly 2 cm (for conventional MEG systems) down to 1 mm. Because of the higher neuromagnetic signal magnitudes available to on-scalp sensors, simulations predict that even a relatively low-sensitivity (higher noise) full-head on-scalp MEG system can extract more information about brain activity than conventional systems.In the first part of this thesis, the development of high critical temperature (high-Tc) superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometers for a 7-channel on-scalp MEG system is described. The sensors are single layer magnetometers with a directly coupled pickup loop made on 10 mm 7 10 mm substrates using bicrystal grain boundary Josephson junctions. We found that the kinetic inductance strongly varies with film quality and temperature. Determination of all SQUID parameters by combining measurements and inductance simulations led to excellent agreement between experimental results and theoretical predictions. This allowed us to perform an in-depth magnetometer optimization. The best magnetometers achieve a magnetic field noise level of 44 fT/√Hz at 78 K. Fabricated test SQUIDs provide evidence that noise levels below 30 fT/√Hz are possible for high quality junctions with fairly low critical currents and in combination with the optimized pickup loop design. Different feedback methods for operation in a densely-packed on-scalp MEG system were also investigated. Direct injection of current into the SQUID loop was identified as the best on-chip feedback method with feedback flux crosstalk below 0.5%. By reducing the operation temperature, the noise level can be further reduced, however, the effective area also decreases because of the decreasing kinetic inductance contribution. We present a method that allows for one-time sensor calibration independent of temperature.In the second part, the design, operation, and performance of the constructed 7-channel on-scalp MEG system based on the fabricated magnetometers is presented. With a dense (2 mm edge-to-edge) hexagonal head-aligned array, the system achieves a small sensor-to-head standoff distance of 1-3 mm and dense spatial sampling. The magnetic field noise levels are 50-130 fT/√Hz and the sensor-to-sensor feedback flux crosstalk is below 0.6%. MEG measurements with the system demonstrate the feasibility of the approach and indicate that our on-scalp MEG system allows retrieval of information unavailable to conventional MEG.In the third part, two alternative magnetometer types are studied for the next generation system. The first alternative is magnetometers based on Dayem bridge junctions instead of bicrystal grain boundary junctions. With a magnetometer based on the novel grooved Dayem bridge junctions, a magnetic field noise level of 63 fT/√Hz could be achieved, which shows that Dayem bridge junctions are starting to become a viable option for single layer magnetometers. The second alternative are high-Tc SQUID magnetometers with an inductively coupled flux transformer. The best device with bicrystal grain boundary junctions reaches a magnetic field noise level below 11 fT/√Hz and outperforms the best single layer device for frequencies above 20 Hz.In the last part, the potential of kinetic inductance magnetometers (KIMs) is investigated. We demonstrate the first high-Tc KIMs, which can be operated in fields of 9-28 \ub5T and achieve a noise level of 4 pT/√Hz at 10 kHz

Novel applications of the Josephson Effect: Ferroelectric Characterisation and Capacitively Shunted Grain Boundary Junctions

This thesis describes applications of the ac Josephson effect. Firstly, results are presented from bicrystal grain boundary YBa2Cu3O7-d junctions shunted with a YBa2Cu3O7-d/SrTiO3/Au multilayer external capacitor, to make a junction with a hysteretic current voltage characteristic operating at high temperatures. A hysteretic junction with a McCumber parameter of 1.01 at 72.3K, with a critical current of 451mA and a resistance of 0.56W was achieved for a junction shunted with a 150mm2 external capacitor with a 50nm SrTiO3 dielectric. The measured capacitance was less than that expected from a calculation of the parallel plate shunt capacitance. The explanation was thermal noise suppression of the hysteresis and the junction saw the shunt capacitor as a distributed impedance rather than a lumped circuit element. It was found during these investigations that the influence of the SrTiO3 substrate on the intrinsic junction capacitance was poorly understood. The permittivity of SrTiO3 is 24000 at 4.2K. A series of YBa2Cu3O7-d Josephson junctions of lengths from 2mm to 20mm was patterned on a SrTiO3 bicrystal and the Fiske resonance dispersion relation was measured. The dispersion relation consisted of two branches, one at low frequencies with a high resonator capacitance per unit length and a high frequency branch with a low resonator capacitance per unit length. This was due to the frequency dependence of the permittivity of bulk SrTiO3, which drops above the soft optic phonon frequency. From the dispersion relation, the permittivity of bulk SrTiO3 was 750 and the soft optic phonon frequency was 145GHz. The ac Josephson effect was exploited to measure the permittivity of thin films of SrTiO3 at microwave frequencies using Josephson junctions coupled to external resonators. The permittivity of 50nm, 100nm and 200nm SrTiO3 films was frequency independent between 100GHz and 900GHz and to decrease with film thickness. The permittivity of the 50nm film was 35 and that of the 200nm film was 187 at 4.2K. The permittivity of the 200nm film was tunable with a dc voltage bias between 245 and 112 at 30K and 116GHz. The grain boundary capacitance was used to probe grain boundary current transport. The capacitance per unit area scaled inversely with resistance area product and increased linearly with critical current density, for undoped and Ca doped YBa2Cu3O7-d grain boundaries on 24° bicrystals. This behaviour could not be explained by tunneling models of grain boundary current transport, and requires current flow over a fraction of the area of the grain boundary.EPSR

Preparation and properties of all high Tc SNS-type edge DC SQUIDs

High-Tc SNS-type Josephson junctions and DC SQUIDs were successfully fabricated using hetero-epitaxially grown multilayers of YBa2Cu3Ox and PrBa2 Cu3O. These layers are c-axis oriented, and hence edges of the multilayers give rise to a current flow in the ab-plane between the electrodes of a Josephson junction. The necessary structuring was done by Ar ion beam etching. The individual junctions exhibit a supercurrent up to 80 K. The IcRn product of these junctions usually has a lower limit of 8 mV at 4.2 K. Voltage modulation of the first DC SQUIDs can be observed up to 66 K. The voltage modulation for various bias currents investigated at 4.2 K noise measurements were performed. Details on the fabrication and measurements are presente

Noise and electrical properties of YBCO nanostructures

This thesis work deals with the investigation of noise properties in cuprate High critical Temperature Superconductor (HTS) YBCO nanoscale devices. Here the aim is to get a better understanding of nanoscale fluctuations in the normal state of HTS from which superconductivity evolves. The observation of fluctuations in the electronic properties might offer valuable clues toward the microscopic mechanism leading to superconductivity in HTS, which still represent one of the main unsolved problems in solid-state physics. In this respect, the YBCO nanodevices are implemented as tools to obtain new experimental signatures, which can deliver new insights about the complex properties of HTS materials. Since cuprate HTS undergo various nano-scale ordering transitions upon cooling and variation of hole doping, being able to study transport properties on the nanoscale is of utmost importance. In this respect, resistance noise properties of YBCO nanowires are studied as a function of temperature and hole doping. Indications of nematic fluctuations, that is local time dependent fluctuations of the in-plane conductivity anisotropy, have been observed in a wide temperature range above the superconducting transition. The observed fluctuations might be related to so-called charge stripe fluctuations, which represent a possible microscopic mechanism for superconductivity in these materials.However, the interest in HTS nanostructures is not purely academic. The technological application of YBCO weak links in SQUID, is a major focus of research in the field. In this thesis, we present a novel fabrication process of HTS weak links: the nanoscale Grooved Dayem Bridge (GDB). Here, the layout of the bridge and the weak link inside the bridge are realized during one single lithography process on a YBCO film grown on a single crystal substrate. This results in high-quality weak links with IcRn products as high as 550 \ub5V and differential resistances much larger than those observed in bare Dayem bridges at T=77 K. Moreover, the GDB greatly simplifies the fabrication procedure compared to grain boundary based JJs. We have used YBCO GDBs as novel nanoscale building blocks in HTS SQUID magnetometers coupled to an in plane pickup loop, which have been characterized via transport and noise measurements at T= 77 K. These devices exhibit large voltage modulations (ΔV =27-50 \ub5V), low values of white magnetic flux noise, 6 \ub5Φ0/\sqrt{Hz}, and corresponding magnetic field noise, 63 fT/\sqrt{Hz}, at T=77 K. Therefore, GDB based SQUIDs combine the nanofabrication advantages and the device reproducibility, which are typical of Dayem bridges, with the performances, i.e. low magnetic flux and field noise, of state-of-the-art SQUIDs based on grain boundary JJs. The achieved magnetic field noise paves the way for the realization of a single layer YBCO magnetometer with magnetic field noise below 20 fT/\sqrt(Hz)

High-Tc ramp-type Josephson junctions on MgO substrates for Terahertz applications

The authors successfully fabricated high-Tc ramp-type junctions with PrBa2Cu3-xGaxO7-δ (PBCGO: x=0.1, 0.4) barriers on MgO substrates. The junctions showed resistively shunted Josephson junction (RSJ)-like I-V curves with thermally and voltage activated conductivity. The IcRn products for these junctions scaled very well with the Ga-doping. Maximum response of the junctions for 100-GHz millimeter-wave irradiation could be observed up to 12 mV corresponding to 6 THz. Using far infrared laser radiation, we confirmed a terahertz (THz) response of these junctions. These results show promise for THz-wave applications of ramp-type Josephson junctions