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Applied Physics Letters

Quantum interference devices made from superconducting oxide thin films

R. H. Koch, Corwin P. Umbach, G. J. Clark, P. K. Chaudhari, Robert B. Laibowitz

Published Jul 20, 1987• 379 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have fabricated superconducting quantum interference devices (dc SQUID’s) from thin films of the superconducting oxide YBa2Cu3Oy. The devices were made by first lithographically patterning an ion implant mask containing a 40 by 40 μm loop and two 17-μm-wide weak links over a ∼1-μm-thick oxide film. Ion implantation was then used to destroy the superconductivity in the film surrounding the device without actually removing material, resulting in a completely planar structure for the SQUID’s. The SQUID’s were operated in the temperature range from 4.2 to 68 K. The superconducting flux quantum was measured to be h/2e in these materials.

DOI
10.1063/1.98922

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We have fabricated superconducting quantum interference devices (dc SQUID’s) from thin films of the superconducting oxide YBa2Cu3Oy. The devices were made by first lithographically patterning an ion implant mask containing a 40 by 40 μm loop and two 17-μm-wide weak links over a ∼1-μm-thick oxide film. Ion implantation was then used to destroy the superconductivity in the film surrounding the device without actually removing material, resulting in a completely planar structure for the SQUID’s. The SQUID’s were operated in the temperature range from 4.2 to 68 K. The superconducting flux quantum was measured to be h/2e in these materials.
A thin-film dc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) consisting of quasiparticle-injected superconducting weak links was fabricated and successfully operated. This SQUID was made on a silicon substrate and it consists of a ∼100-nm-thick lead alloy with two injector junctions. The characteristics of this dc SQUID are controllable by varying the injecting rate of quasiparticles; therefore, it can be operated at arbitrary temperatures below the transition temperature of the superconducting material.
We have fabricated a YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) thin-film dc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) with lithographically defined deep-submicron weak links. At 77 K the voltage response to dc flux is sinusoidal and nonhysteretic, with maximum peak-to-peak amplitude of 5 μV. The maximum response is 8 μV at 70 K, where 2LI0/Φ0≊1. At lower temperatures, the maximum response oscillates in the range 4–6 μV. Random telegraph noise was observed near 30–40 K. Well-behaved Shapiro steps were observable at all measured temperatures below Tc.
We have fabricated dc-superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) with all-thin-film point contacts (Nb–Nb nanoconstriction-NbN). The size of the nanoconstriction may be smaller than the superconducting coherence length of bulk Nb. The quasiparticle characteristic of the all-thin-film point contact can be explained using the Blonder, Tinkham and Klapwijk (BTK) quasiparticle current which is applicable to the superconducting quantum point contact. The flux noise of SQUID with 10 pH operated in a flux locked loop is 8 µΦ0/ Hz1/2 at 1 Hz, and 4 µΦ0/ Hz1/2 at frequencies above 10 Hz is limited by the preamplifier.
DC superconducting quantum interference devices (dc-SQUIDs) were fabricated in Co-doped BaFe 2 As 2 epitaxial films on (La, Sr)(Al, Ta)O 3 bicrystal substrates with 30° misorientation angles. The 18 × 8 µm 2 SQUID loop with an estimated inductance of 13 pH contained two 3 µm wide grain boundary junctions. The voltage–flux characteristics clearly exhibited periodic modulations with Δ V = 1.4 µV at 14 K, while the intrinsic flux noise of dc-SQUIDs was 7.8 × 10 − 5 Φ 0 Hz − 1/2 above 20 Hz. The rather high flux noise is mainly attributed to the small voltage modulation depth which results from the superconductor–normal-metal–superconductor junction nature of the bicrystal grain boundary.
Operation principle of AND/OR logic has been realized in a coupled high-T c Superconducting QUantum Interference Device (SQUID). The device consists of rf- and dc-SQUID's. The logic operation is based on the nonlinear characteristics of the internal and external magnetic flux in the rf-SQUID. Results of the logic operation can be read out by the dc-SQUID. The device is made of NdBa2Cu3O7-δ superconducting thin film with superconducting weak links fabricated using a narrow-focused Ga-ion beam technology.
We report on the fabrication and characterization of micrometer-sized superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) based on nanoscale vanadium/copper/vanadium Josephson weak links. Magnetically driven quantum interference patterns have been measured for temperatures in the 0.24–2 K range. As DC SQUIDs, these devices obtain flux-to-voltage transfer function values as high as 450 μV/Φ0 leading to promising magnetic flux resolution ΦN<3 μΦ0/Hz, being here limited by the room temperature preamplification stage. Significant improvement in the flux noise performance figures is expected with the adoption of cryogenic preamplification. The presented devices are suitable for operation as small-area SQUIDs at sub-Kelvin temperature, but their design can also be upscaled to include input coils enabling their use as sensitive magnetometers via the adoption of optimized electronic readout stages based on flux feedback schemes.