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Applied Physics Letters

High-temperature superconducting Josephson fluxon–antifluxon transistors

S. J. Berkowitz, Y. M. Zhang, W. H. Mallison, K. Char, Esin Terzioglu, M. R. Beasley

Published Nov 18, 1996• 11 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have realized the Josephson fluxon–antifluxon transistor (JFAT) in high temperature superconductivity using an asymmetric control line on top of either bicrystal junctions or Co-doped YBa2Cu3Ox superconductor–normal–superconductor (SNS) junctions. We have measured current gains as high as 6 for 30 μm-wide bicrystal JFATs (30 K) and as high as 3 for Co-doped SNS JFATs (50 K). An improvement in gain over the Josephson vortex flow transistor, due to improved coupling efficiency, is demonstrated. There is also a reduction of control line inductance that should lead to an improvement in gate speed.

DOI
10.1063/1.118028

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We have realized the Josephson fluxon–antifluxon transistor (JFAT) in high temperature superconductivity using an asymmetric control line on top of either bicrystal junctions or Co-doped YBa2Cu3Ox superconductor–normal–superconductor (SNS) junctions. We have measured current gains as high as 6 for 30 μm-wide bicrystal JFATs (30 K) and as high as 3 for Co-doped SNS JFATs (50 K). An improvement in gain over the Josephson vortex flow transistor, due to improved coupling efficiency, is demonstrated. There is also a reduction of control line inductance that should lead to an improvement in gate speed.
A Josephson fluxon-antifluxon transistor (JFAT) can be constructed utilizing high-T/sub c/ bicrystal or SNS long junctions with a control line on top of the junction, This device can be modeled numerically by solving the perturbed sine-Gordon equation. A JFAT has a higher current gain and a faster transient response compared to a conventional Josephson flux-flow transistor which has a U-shaped control line on top of the long junction. Dependences of the control characteristics on the width and the location of the control line, as well as on the junction length are calculated. The influence of a superconducting ground plane on device characteristics are also discussed. These results are important to the design of high-T/sub c/ digital circuits based on JFATs.
We provide two qualitative models for the operation of Josephson fluxon–antifluxon transistor based on the pendulum model and image currents induced in the junction. This device, which is a variant of a Josephson vortex flow transistor, utilizes high temperature superconductor long Josephson junctions with a control line on top of the junction. Our models are consistent with the experimental observation that the coupling efficiency increases with this geometry. We also provide a quantitative model using numerical simulations to confirm the static and dynamic characteristics predicted by the intuitive models.
Josephson fluxonic bipolar junction transistor (JFBJT) has been proposed as a superconducting amplifying element. The results on a simple realization of this device are provided to demonstrate its working principle. These experiments demonstrate that JFBJT provides current gain without suffering from the problems associated with the regular long junction vortex flow transistors. In particular, no resonance structure is present in its I-V characteristics and its impedance can be matched to any load without degradation of its characteristics. Suggestion is made on how a practical device can be fabricated.
The dynamics of fluxons in the vortex flow transistor (VFT) has been much studied. The fluxon transit time determines the fundamental speed limit of operation. Since fluxons can travel at the velocity of electromagnetic waves in the junction, the VFT has the potential for operating in high frequency systems ( ≈ 100 GHz). However, owing to the low input and output impedance of the VFT, use of the device in a conventional circuit would be quite limited. A distributed amplifier configuration consisting of many VFTs has been proposed to remedy the problems of low impedance levels. However, the realization of such an amplifier circuit at microwave or millimetre wave frequencies depends on obtaining a circuit model. In this paper, microwave superconducting VFT distributed amplifiers using the balanced control technique is reviewed. This kind of amplifier has the advantage that the capacitive feedthrough effect is decreased to a negligible extent. This is the major limiting factor for high frequency applications. The self-field effect which makes the current step inclined is reduced by injecting bias current only around the region of one end of the junction thus obtaining steeper I- V characteristics. With the asymmetric geometry, the slope of the current step is about one hundred times steeper than those obtained with the conventional overlap geometry. Owing to the diamagnetic behaviour of the Josephson junction, a little of the magnetic field induced by the current in the control line is allowed to penetrate the junction. Thus, the transresistance rm of a VFT is very small. Some methods for maximizing rm and minimizing the output impedance r0 also appear in this review. The feasibility of fabricating VFT distributed amplifiers using low-Tc superconducting material has been demonstrated. The power gain of the amplifier can be as high as 15 dB with a flat frequency response.
We fabricated Josephson vortex flow transistors (JVFTs) with a parallel array of Josephson junctions that were prepared using c-axis-oriented 100-nm-thick YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-δ (YBCO) thin films grown on 24° bicrystal MgO (100) substrates. We observed clear modulations of the critical current and the flow voltage with DC current input to the control line that was inductively coupled to the array of junctions. From the results, we estimated the parameters of the device, e.g., the mutual inductance and the self-inductance, and calculated the operation frequency at which the device potentially exhibited these parameters. Moreover, the current gain and the transresistance were evaluated and found to be 0.5 and 0.15 Ω, respectively. In addition, we observed the high-frequency responses of the JVFT to the input AC current of the sine wave or the square pulse wave. A clear oscillation of the output voltage could be observed with a 1 MHz sine wave and 250 kHz square pulse wave. We also discussed the feasibility of higher frequency operation by using it as an input interface for a single flux quantum (SFQ) logic circuit.
The superconductor-ferromagnetic transistors (SFTs) with the SISFIFS structure (where S, I, and F denote a superconductor (Nb), an insulator (AlOx), and a ferromagnetic material (Ni), respectively) are promising for various applications in superconducting electronics. Specifically, as current amplifiers, they can be used as line drivers and cell selectors in cryogenic memory. Here we report on results of a study of dependence of current gain on the SFIFS injector and SIS acceptor barrier transparency. We demonstrate that making the acceptor junction much more transparent than the injector junction results in improvement of the current gain; in particular it can exceed unity. Therefore proper device engineering allows one to efficiently control the maximum Josephson current in the SIS acceptor junction using the quasiparticle injection.