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Applied Physics Letters

Measurements of low-frequency noise spectral densities for a small-sized stack of intrinsic Josephson junctions of Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oy single crystal

Atsushi SAITO, Hiroki Ishida, K. Hamasaki, Akinobu Irie, Gin-ichiro Oya

Published Aug 10, 2004• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We measured the low-frequency-voltage noise properties of a small-sized stack of intrinsic Josephson junctions formed on the surface of a cleaved Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oy (Bi-2212) single crystal, containing a few intrinsic Josephson junctions. A stack with an area of 2×2μm was fabricated by electron-beam lithography and argon-ion-milling. The current–voltage (I–V) characteristics along the c-axis direction of the stack were measured by a three-terminal method. The stack showed (I–V) and dV∕dI-V curves without backbending due to heating effects. Five discrete resistive branches with hysteresis were observed in the low-voltage region of these curves. The measured noise-voltage spectral density SV(f) had a 1∕f dependence on frequency. We estimated the magnitude of the 1∕f noise parameter η from SV(f) in a Bi-2212 stack and found that above the sum-gap voltage in a small-sized stack η was almost the same as that for low-Tc Nb∕Al+AlOx∕Nb high-quality tunnel junctions.

DOI
10.1063/1.1780601

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Applied Physics Letters•Oct 11, 1999•11 citations
We measured the low-frequency-voltage noise properties of a small-sized stack of intrinsic Josephson junctions formed on the surface of a cleaved Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oy (Bi-2212) single crystal, containing a few intrinsic Josephson junctions. A stack with an area of 2×2μm was fabricated by electron-beam lithography and argon-ion-milling. The current–voltage (I–V) characteristics along the c-axis direction of the stack were measured by a three-terminal method. The stack showed (I–V) and dV∕dI-V curves without backbending due to heating effects. Five discrete resistive branches with hysteresis were observed in the low-voltage region of these curves. The measured noise-voltage spectral density SV(f) had a 1∕f dependence on frequency. We estimated the magnitude of the 1∕f noise parameter η from SV(f) in a Bi-2212 stack and found that above the sum-gap voltage in a small-sized stack η was almost the same as that for low-Tc Nb∕Al+AlOx∕Nb high-quality tunnel junctions.
Improvement in the quality of stacked intrinsic Josephson junctions (IJJs) was attempted using Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (Bi-2212) single crystals. The introduction of a clean Bi-2212/Au interface reduced contact resistivity (ρc), decreased low frequency noise, and suppressed the drop in the maximum Josephson current (Ic), which are very important factors for applications such as a superconducting quantum interference device. The ρc of samples produced by crystal cleavage in air or vacuum were, respectively, 8.2 × 10−5 and 7.0 × 10−6 Ω cm2 at 300 K and 8.2 × 10−5 and 2.1 × 10−6 Ω cm2 at 77 K. Random-telegraph voltage noise observed with the air-cleaved samples did not occur for the samples cleaved in a vacuum. The degradation of Ic was suppressed for IJJs produced by the vacuum cleavage process.
We fabricated submicron-sized intrinsic Josephson junctions of Bi-2212 by the focused-ion-beam (FIB) etching method. The main result was a reduction of the in-plane junction area to 0.3 µm 2 by direct FIB etching with no degradation in the critical transition temperature ( T c ). At the current ( I )-voltage ( V ) characteristic of these stacks, the gap structure and the normal-state resistance are clearly observed by a reduction of the Joule heating. The critical current density is considerably suppressed, the hysteresis and multibranch structure are eliminated and a periodic structure of current peaks appears reproducibly on the I - V curves. The period V of the structure is consistent with the Coulomb charging energy of a single pair, V = e / C , where C is the effective capacitance of the stack. It is considered that this behaviour originates from the Coulomb blockade of intrinsic Josephson tunnelling in submicron Bi-2212 stacks. We demonstrated the junction operating up to 10 K for the stack with an in-plane size of 0.3 µm 2 and an elementary junction number of 50.
Superconducting qubit circuits require high quality low critical current density Josephson tunnel junctions. We have developed high quality epitaxial NbN/AlN/NbN tunnel junctions with critical current density, Jc, ranging from as low as a few A/cm2to a few tens of kA/cm2. In this work, we measured current-voltage characteristics for junctions with a Jc~ 32 A/cm2in the temperature range from 17 mK to above 6.7 K. All the junctions are in good quality and have a high gap voltage (>; 5.5 mV). We found that the junctions' sub-gap resistances were temperature dependent above 2.5 K and saturated at temperatures below 2.5 K. A junction sub-gap leakage current Irof about 23 pA was measured. The voltage noise power spectral density for 3 junctions with different sizes has been measured at the base temperature of 17 mK with the junctions biased above the gap voltage. The spectral densities clearly show 1/fbehavior at low frequency and are proportional to the junction's linear dimension.
We fabricated submicron-sized intrinsic Josephson junctions by the focused-ion-beam (FIB) etching method. The principal result was a reduction of the in-plane junction area to 0.3 μm2 by direct FIB etching with no degradation in the critical transition temperature (Tc). In the current (I)–voltage (V) characteristics of these stacks, the gap structure and the normal state resistance are clearly observed together with a reduction of the Joule heating and disappearance of the branch structure. The Coulomb staircase structure was found in the I–V curves of submicron junctions as a result of their small effective capacitance of fF order.
With a thin gold layer, we fabricated mesa-like shunted intrinsic Josephson junction stacks on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x single crystals. Instead of the multibranch structure and large voltage jumps often observed in conventional intrinsic junctions, current–voltage characteristics typical of resistively shunted junctions were obtained. Individual Shapiro steps were clearly visible with irradiation at frequencies from a few to 20 GHz. The experiments demonstrated not only the ac Josephson effects directly but also the possibility of employing intrinsic Josephson junctions in high-frequency applications.
In a c-axis junction stack (10 μm×10 μm in a-b plane) patterned on a Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+X single crystal, we performed harmonic mixings between a 100 GHz signal and up to the 98th harmonic of a local oscillator at about 1 GHz. The dependence of PIF on V, where PIF is the mixing output at the intermediate frequency and V is the dc voltage across the junction stack, was strongly affected by the local oscillator power levels. For low values of local oscillator power, the optimum operation point where PIF became maximum was around zero bias, and typical multi-branch structure of PIF vs V curves were observed. For high values of local oscillator power, the optimum operation point moved to the high-voltage region. In both cases, interesting oscillations occurred on the PIF vs V curves. Our experimental results led us to believe that intrinsic Josephson junctions can be good candidates for high frequency applications and the harmonic mixing may be a useful probe to investigate plasma phenomena in the layered superconductors.