High quality YBa2Cu3Ox ultra-thin films and Y/Pr/Y multilayers made by a modified RF-magnetron sputtering technique

High quality ĉ-axis oriented thin and ultra-thin films have been grown in situ on (100) surfaces of ZrO2, SrTiO3 and MgO. Sharp transitions were observed with Tc,zero of 87–91 K for films thicker than 70 Å. On atomically polished MgO substrates films as thin as 15 Å revealed a full transition to superconductivity above 45.5 K. The critical current density at 77 K was found to be strongly dependent on film thickness. A maximum value was found for a 100 Å film with 8 × 106A/cm2 at 77 K. Also, YBCO/PBCO/YBCO multilayer thin films have been fabricated in situ by the same technique. The epitaxy is maintained throughout the whole multilayer system. The superconducting properties of YBa2Cu3Ox layers do not change compared to single layers. Interdiffusion and possible chemical reaction close to the interfaces can be neglected.\ud \u

Properties of lift-off structured high Tc microbridges

Microbridges and DC SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices) were fabricated, using a lift-off technique, from RF sputtered YBaCuO films on MgO single-crystal substrates. Microwave measurements at 9 GHz on microbridges and the magnetic-field dependence of their critical current reveal wide bridge behaviour up to temperatures near the maximum operating temperature of the bridge. Mostly, a linear dependence of the critical current on the temperature is found, which is connected with high intrinsic 1/f noise if the bridge is constant-current-biased slightly above the critical current. In some bridges and DC SQUIDs, regimes with a temperature dependence proportional to (1-T/Tc)1.5 are found. In this case the 1/f noise level is much smaller and SQUID modulation can be followed to about 65

Parameter study of in-situ grown superconducting YBaCuO thin films prepared by laser ablation

A parameter study has been made of YBaCuO thin films prepared by laser oblation. The films were deposited on SrTiO3, MgO, and Si with ZrO2 buffer layer at substrate temperatures between 600°C – 800°C. With optimization of different parameters like substrate temperature, pulse frequency, target-substrate distance, and oxygen pressure, zero resistivity was derived for the in-situ grown films on SrTiO3 at 89.5 K, on MgO at 84.6 K, and on Si (ZrO2) at 83.5 K

Introduction of ramp-type technology in HTS quasiparticle injection devices

Injection of quasiparticles with an energy larger than the superconducting gap into a superconducting strip results in breaking of Cooper-pairs and hence the suppression of the superconducting properties. Experiments using planar injection devices made of HTS materials with various barrier materials showed current gains varying from 2 up to 15 at 77 K. By changing the junction size and therefore the superconducting volume the current gain could be increased. A further reduction of the junction volume is very difficult using the planar device geometry. However, by applying the ramp-type technology it is possible to reduce the junction volume by at least one order of magnitude and a further increase in current gain is expected. Another advantage of this technology is the formation of in-situ barriers and electrodes and hence a better control of the junction characteristics should be possible, also the compatibility with the processes involved making RSFQ devices can be interesting for later applications. We have fabricated ramp-type injection devices, using various types of barriers. Characterization of these devices has been performed and the results of these experiments will be presented and discussed

Fabrication of 45 degrees template grain boundary junctions using a CaO lift-off technique

45 degrees grain boundary junctions have been made using (100) MgO substrates, a CeO2 template layer and an YBa2Cu3O7 top layer. To minimize the damage to the MgO surface, which will occur if the CeO2 is structured using ion milling, the CeO2 layer has been structured using the CaO lift-off technique. Electrical measurements of these junctions as a function of temperature, microwave irradiation and magnetic field will be discussed in this paper

Controlled preparation of all high-Tc SNS-type edge junctions and DC SQUIDs

High-Tc SNS-type Josephson junctions and DC SQUIDs were successfully fabricated using hetero-epitaxially grown multilayers of YBa2Cu3Ox and PrBa2Cu3Ox. 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. Details on the fabrication and measurements are presented

On the suppression of the sidelobes of the supercurrent in small Josephson tunnel junctions

The critical currents of Nb/Al, Al-oxide, Al/Nb tunnel junctions of various shapes have been measured as a function of the applied magnetic field. For the square junction and for some special shapes like the diamond, ¿1 + cosine¿ and quartic junctions the Ic(B) pattern falls off theoretically as 1/Bn, with n respectively equal to 1, 2, 3 and 4. In general the measurements are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions. For the "1 + cosine" and quartic shapes we found a sidelobe suppression that is even larger than that obtained in theory. For the quartic junction the first sidelobe is only 0.3% of the zero-field current. An Ic(B) modulation with a small, only slowly decreasing amplitude is observed for the diamond, "1 + cosine", and quartic junctions, that can be explained by rounding of the sharp edges of the junction shapes, due to the fabrication process

Monolithic flux transformer-coupled high-Tc dc SQUID magnetometers

YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-x/ based monolithic flux transformer-coupled high-T/sub c/ DC SQUID magnetometers operating up to 73 K have been realized. The devices are characterized by high values of the modulation voltage, up to 32 /spl mu/V at 40 K. A minimal white noise level of 0.10 pT//spl radic/Hz was obtained above 200 Hz, and 0.64 pT//spl radic/Hz at 1 Hz and 55 K. The temperature dependence of the modulation voltage, the effective sensing area and the field sensitivity are discussed. Model-calculations have been performed to investigate high frequency resonances in the washer-input coil structure. Methods for damping are considered