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Applied Physics Letters

High-T c, multilevel edge junction superconducting quantum interference devices with SrTiO3 barriers operating at 77 K

Robert B. Laibowitz, Jian Sun, Vittorio Foglietti, W. J. Gallagher, R. H. Koch

Published Jan 10, 1994• 27 citations
Publisher

Abstract

All high-Tc, multilevel edge junction superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) which now operate at 77 K have been fabricated using laser-ablated YBaCuO electrodes and in situ laser-ablated SrTiO3 for the barrier material. Devices with a SQUID inductance of about 70 pH have a peak to peak voltage swing, VΦ, up to 8 μV (dV/dΦ≂25 μV) and a flux noise (SΦ) of about 3×10−10 Φ20/Hz in the white noise region. IcRn, products for these devices are about 35 μV at 77 K with Ic in the range of 3–100 μA and operation to temperatures as high as 84 K observed. Scaling of the junction conductance and critical current with junction size has been measured on many devices and we observe an IcRn product that varies approximately as J0.89c.

DOI
10.1063/1.111518

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All high-Tc, multilevel edge junction superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) which now operate at 77 K have been fabricated using laser-ablated YBaCuO electrodes and in situ laser-ablated SrTiO3 for the barrier material. Devices with a SQUID inductance of about 70 pH have a peak to peak voltage swing, VΦ, up to 8 μV (dV/dΦ≂25 μV) and a flux noise (SΦ) of about 3×10−10 Φ20/Hz in the white noise region. IcRn, products for these devices are about 35 μV at 77 K with Ic in the range of 3–100 μA and operation to temperatures as high as 84 K observed. Scaling of the junction conductance and critical current with junction size has been measured on many devices and we observe an IcRn product that varies approximately as J0.89c.
Autonomous single-layer dc superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) have been prepared from epitaxial, laser-deposited YBa2Cu3Ox films on step edge SrTiO3 and LaAlO3 substrates. For device patterning, a SiOx inhibit technique as well as conventional ethylenediaminetetraacetic wet etch was used. The Josephson junctions are of grain boundary type. Their widths are 5 μm. The SQUID hole is a square of about 5 μm; the SQUID inductance is estimated to be about 20 pH. We obtained a very regular, nonhysteretic flux to voltage modulation over more than 100 flux quanta (Φ0). The maximum voltage signal is of the order of 15 μV peak to peak and the maximum transfer function dV/dΦ at the appropriate flux bias is 50 μV/Φ0 at 77 K. The best value of the equivalent flux noise as measured in the flux locked loop mode is 1.4×10−5 Φ0/Hz1/2 at 1 Hz and 1×10−5 Φ0/Hz1/2 in the white noise region for f≳5 Hz. This results in an energy resolution εn,w(f≳5 Hz)=1×10−29 J/Hz in the white noise region and 2×10−29 J/Hz at 1 Hz.
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We have developed a technique which permits high-yield fabrication of microbridges and low noise YBa2Cu3O7 superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) in epitaxial thin films. These SQUIDs operate over a wide temperature range extending from 4 K to close to the superconducting transition temperature. Measurements of an rf SQUID operating at 77 K give a peak-to-peak flux sensitivity of 36 μV/Φ0 and a flux noise at 10 Hz of 1.5× 10−4 Φ0/√Hz. Device yields over 80% have been obtained.
The operation of YBa2Cu3O7 rf superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) using a dielectric SrTiO3 resonator as tank circuit was tested. At 77 K, we attained for such resonators unloaded quality factors Q0 up to 7000 at resonant frequencies near 1 GHz, when measuring without electromagnetic shielding. For a washer SQUID with an area of 4×4 mm2 and an inductance of ≂100 pH, which was properly coupled to the resonator, we measured an approximately 60 μV peak-to-peak SQUID signal and a white flux noise spectral density of SΦ1/2=1×10−5Φ0/√Hz, corresponding to a field sensitivity of BN=105 fT/√Hz. With an additional single-layer flux transformer with a diameter of the pickup loop of 22 mm in flip-chip arrangement, the field sensitivity was improved to 30 fT/√Hz.
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 measured the current-voltage, flux-voltage, and noise characteristics of 77 K superconducting quantum interference devices made with step edge junctions and multilevel edge junctions on SrTiO3 substrates and with step edge junctions on LaAlO3. We find in each case that the I-V curves can have excess currents of up to 50%–80%, that the responsivity, ∂V/∂Φ, can be substantially smaller than expected from the resistively shunted junction (RSJ) model, but that the white noise voltage spectral density is about as expected. We discuss the extent to which the reduction of the responsivity is correlated with the excess current. We note that the observed unchanged magnitude of the voltage noise and the reduced responsivity would both be expected if we based the RSJ predictions on a model in which the excess current is not considered part of the Josephson current. Finally and perhaps fundamentally, we find that simulations made assuming a nonsinusoidal current-phase relationship give rise to an excess current, a reduction of the responsivity, and little change in the voltage noise spectral density, at least qualitatively as is observed.