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Applied Physics Letters

High quality refractory Josephson tunnel junctions utilizing thin aluminum layers

Michael Gurvitch, M. A. Washington, Harold A. Huggins

Published Mar 1, 1983• 563 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Preparation of high quality all-refractory Josephson tunnel junctions based on Nb/Al-oxide-Nb and Nb/Al-oxide-Al/Nb structures is reported. Critical currents up to 1300 A/cm2 and Vm values up to 35 mV were obtained. The specific capacitance of these junctions is 0.06±0.02 pF/μm2. Junctions were fabricated using standard photolithography and a new plasma etching process coupled with anodization of Nb.

DOI
10.1063/1.93974

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Preparation of high quality all-refractory Josephson tunnel junctions based on Nb/Al-oxide-Nb and Nb/Al-oxide-Al/Nb structures is reported. Critical currents up to 1300 A/cm2 and Vm values up to 35 mV were obtained. The specific capacitance of these junctions is 0.06±0.02 pF/μm2. Junctions were fabricated using standard photolithography and a new plasma etching process coupled with anodization of Nb.
Niobium/aluminum-oxide/niobium Josephson tunnel junctions have been fabricated using electron beam evaporation to form all-metal films in a high vacuum system. A quality factor, V m (the product of the maximum dc Josephson current and the subgap resistance defined at 2 mV) between 36–37 mV, has been obtained for the best junctions of a 6 nm-thick Al layer by cooling down the surface of the base electrode for 100 minutes under a high background pressure, before the deposition of aluminum, after the formation of the base niobium electrode. An array of 80 series-connected junctions has also been fabricated using the selective niobium anodization process and the planarization process. The current-voltage characteristics of the array showed a standard deviation of the maximum dc Josephson current of 3.3%.
A description of the fabrication technology of high-quality tunnel SIS junctions is presented, with following characteristics: energy gap in superconductors Vg=3.2-3.4 mV, tunnel current density up to J 35 kA/cm2, quality factor Rj/Rn (ratio of subgap resistance to normal-state resistance) up to 30, junction area up to 1 μm2. The SIS junctions are integrated into the NbTiN|SiO2|Al microstrip line. Keywords: superconducting devices, superconductor--insulator--superconductor tunnel junction, plasma etching.
We have developed a novel process for fabricating all refractory Josephson tunnel junctions whose base and counter electrodes are composed of (Nb-NbN) double-layered films. In this process, tunnel junctions have been isolated using a reactive ion etching from a junction sandwich which had been formed on an entire silicon wafer, and also the reactive ion etching has been used for patterning electrodes and insulation layers in devices. Fabricated junctions have yielded good tunneling characteristics with excellent uniformity and reproducibility. The maximum critical current density was widely changed from 300 A/cm2to 8 kA/cm2. All refractory single flux quantum(SFQ) memory cells in a 32×32 arrangement have been integrated with a 2.5 μm minimum linewidth on a chip using this process, and an SFQ cell in the memory array has been successfully operated. The maximum deviation of critical currents in the memory array was measured to be ±6.5%.
Preparation of high quality single crystal Nb tunnel junctions based on Nb/Nb2O5/Pb structures is reported. Vm values of 30±10 mV were obtained. The average specific capacitance of these junctions is 0.020±0.002 pF/μm2. From measurements of the oxidation rate, the conductance at high voltage bias, and observations of the tunneling behavior, we show that some characteristics previously associated with oxidized niobium barriers are not intrinsic and are significantly improved when the underlying niobium film is single crystal.
Nb/Al–AlO x /Nb tunnel junctions are often used in the studies of macroscopic quantum phenomena and superconducting qubit applications of the Josephson devices. In this work, we describe a convenient and reliable process using electron beam lithography for the fabrication of high-quality, submicron-sized Nb/Al–AlO x /Nb Josephson junctions. The technique follows the well-known selective Nb etching process and produces high-quality junctions with V m = 100 mV at 2.3 K for the typical critical current density of 2.2 kA/cm 2 , which can be adjusted by controlling the oxygen pressure and oxidation time during the formation of the tunnelling barrier. We present the results of the temperature dependence of the sub-gap current and in-plane magnetic-field dependence of the critical current, and compare them with the theoretical predictions.
We have developed a combined photolithography and electron-beam lithography fabrication process for sub-\mum to \mum-size Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb Josephson junctions. In order to define the junction size and protect its top electrode during anodic oxidation, we developed and used the new concept of an aluminum hard mask. Josephson junctions of sizes down to 0.5 \mum2 have been fabricated and thoroughly characterized. We found that they have a very high quality, which is witnessed by the IV curves with quality parameters Vm > 50 mV and Vgap = 2.8 mV at 4.2 K, as well as IcRN products of 1.75-1.93 mV obtained at lower temperatures. In order to test the usability of our fabrication process for superconducting quantum bits, we have also designed, fabricated and experimentally investigated phase qubits made of these junctions. We found a relaxation time of T1 = 26 ns and a dephasing time of T2 = 21 ns.