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IEEE Transactions on Magnetics

Semiconductor heterostructure weak links for Josephson and superconducting FET applications

Alan W. Kleinsasser, Thomas Nelson Jackson, George D. Pettit, Heinz Schmid, J. M. Woodall, Dieter P. Kern

Published Mar 1, 1987• 11 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Superconductor-normal-superconductor (SNS) weak links using a semiconductor as the normal region are of interest for applications in high frequency Josephson devices and in superconducting field effect transistors. Recently, there has been a revival of interest in materials such as InAs which, in principle, allow true SNS structures without tunneling (Schottky) barriers at the electrodes, In this paper we discuss the requirements for semiconductor SNS Josephson and FET devices and describe the fabrication and characterization of planar SNS weak links in which the normal region is InAs, which is part of a heterostructure consisting of a thin (100 nm) layer of n-InAs grown on undoped GaAs. Nb electrodes defined by electron beam lithography have been made with spacings as small as 260 nm. Preliminary measurements indicate that the devices have good electrical behavior which is well explained by SNS weak link theory, using coherence lengths calculated from measured material parameters. These weak links can be the basis for superconducting FET devices, and have the significant advantage of allowing simple device isolation compared with bulk InAs, which was used in earlier work.

DOI
10.1109/tmag.1987.1065138

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Superconductor-normal-superconductor (SNS) weak links using a semiconductor as the normal region are of interest for applications in high frequency Josephson devices and in superconducting field effect transistors. Recently, there has been a revival of interest in materials such as InAs which, in principle, allow true SNS structures without tunneling (Schottky) barriers at the electrodes, In this paper we discuss the requirements for semiconductor SNS Josephson and FET devices and describe the fabrication and characterization of planar SNS weak links in which the normal region is InAs, which is part of a heterostructure consisting of a thin (100 nm) layer of n-InAs grown on undoped GaAs. Nb electrodes defined by electron beam lithography have been made with spacings as small as 260 nm. Preliminary measurements indicate that the devices have good electrical behavior which is well explained by SNS weak link theory, using coherence lengths calculated from measured material parameters. These weak links can be the basis for superconducting FET devices, and have the significant advantage of allowing simple device isolation compared with bulk InAs, which was used in earlier work.
We describe the design, fabrication, and characterization of superconducting In0.47Ga0.53As junction field-effect transistors (JFETs) with Nb source and drain electrodes. In0.47Ga0.53As has the advantage of combining large coherence length and high Schottky barrier transmission, making it a very attractive material on which to base superconducting FETs. At large voltages these devices behave as normal FETs in either enhancement or depletion modes, while at small voltages they act as Josephson junctions or super-Schottky diodes. Both normal and super- currents are controlled by the gate.
Superconducting devices with coplanar electrodes have been fabricated using electron-beam lithography to define the smallest feature. The devices each consist of two Pb-In alloy electrodes, 20 µm wide, deposited on a clean, degenerately doped silicon substrate. The two electrodes are separated by a thin (100-300-nm) gap. Electron-beam lithography is used to define the gap, and sputter etching to remove the underlying alloy film. Depending on the width of the gap and the condition of the metal-semiconductor interface, these devices displayed either Josephson or super-Schottky diode behavior. The Josephson devices show a high degree of robustness and hadI_{c}Rproducts in the range 200-800 µV at 4.2 K. The super-Schottky diodes had current sensitivities S in the range 1000-1300 V-1when measured at 4.2 K.
Several applications of Josephson junctions (JJs) in low-temperature superconducting circuits such as programmable voltage standards and SFQ logical circuits or SQUID sensors require JJs with sub-µm dimensions. A method for preparing superconductor-isolator-superconductor (SIS) JJs as well as superconductor-normal metal-superconductor (SNS) JJs was developed which allows the preparation of both types of junctions by nearly the same technological process. Titanium is used as the normal metal for the SNS JJ. Ti can be anodically oxidized and a technology similar to the well-tried Nb-Al technology for SIS JJs can be applied to the SNS system, too. By electron-beam exposure of a negative deep UV photoresist (ma-N 2400) a stable resist mask is generated which has to withstand the following three self-aligned process steps: etching of the Nb counterelectrode by RIE, isolation by anodization and lifting of a SiO planarization layer. By this process SNS (Nb-Ti-Nb) and SIS (Nb-Al/AlO x -Nb) Josephson junctions with smallest junction areas of 0.49 µm 2 were prepared and characterized by dc measurements and under the influence of microwave irradiation. The Nb-Ti-Nb junctions have I c R n products of 87 µV. They can be used for programmable Josephson voltage standard circuits at frequencies of 70 GHz.
The performance and coherence of superconducting quantum systems are fundamentally tied to the quality of the materials from which they are built. In superconducting transmon qubits, many loss mechanisms and sources of decoherence originate from material imperfections or unwanted oxide formation. Likewise, semiconductor–superconductor hybrid systems depend on high-quality interfaces to ensure strong coupling between electronic states in the two materials. In such hybrid devices, the accessible operating regime is often dictated by the intrinsic material properties of either the semiconductor or the superconductor. Advancing quantum device performance therefore requires exploring new material systems and optimizing their physical characteristics. In this thesis, we present the development of several superconducting material platforms for quantum technologies, including superconducting qubits, single-photon detectors, and semiconductor superconductor hybrid devices. We focus on the growth and characterization of superconducting films and heterostructures, and we establish clear connections between their material properties and the resulting device performance. First, we will present a novel semiconductor-superconductor hybrid material based on in-situ deposited epitaxial layers of Nb and Al on a shallow InAs quantum well. In this structure, the Al interlayer provides an epitaxial connection between an in-situ magnetron sputtered Nb or NbTi thin film and a shallow InAs two dimensional electron gas. This metal-to-metal epitaxy is achieved by optimization of the material stack and results in an induced superconducting gap of approximately 1 meV, determined from transport measurements of superconductor semiconductor Josephson junctions. This induced gap is approximately five times larger than the values reported for Al-based hybrid materials and indicates the formation of highly-transparent interfaces that are required in high-quality hybrid material platforms. Then, we discuss a different approach in the next chapter where we develop a hybrid material based on a molecular beam epitaxy grown InAsSb surface quantum well with an in-situ deposited Nb layer directly on top of the quantum well. Relative to conventional Al-InAs based systems, the InAsSb surface quantum well offers a lower effective mass and stronger spin-orbit interaction, while the Nb layer has a higher critical temperature and a larger critical magnetic field. The in-situ deposition of the Nb layer directly on top of the quantum well results in a high-quality interface that enables strong coupling to the InAsSb quantum well. Transport measurements on Josephson junctions reveal an induced superconducting gap of 1.3 meV and a critical current density of 3.75 × 10³A/cm². Furthermore, a planar asymmetric SQUID is realized, exhibiting gate-tunable superimposed oscillations originating from both the individual Josephson junction and the full SQUID loop. The large induced superconducting gap combined with strong spin-orbit interaction position this material as an attractive platform for experiments exploring gate-tunable superconductivity and topological superconducting devices. In the next chapter, we will focus on establishing a link between Nb film crystal properties and their performance in superconducting circuits. In this study, we investigate the microwave properties of niobium resonators with different crystalline properties and related surface topographies. We analyze a series of magnetron sputtered films in which the Nb crystal orientation and surface topography are changed by varying the substrate temperatures between room temperature and 975 K. The lowest-loss resonators that we measure have quality factors of over 10⁶ at single-photon powers, among the best ever recorded using the Nb on sapphire platform. We observe the highest quality factors in films grown at an intermediate temperature regime of the growth series (550 K) where the films display both preferential ordering of the crystal domains and low surface roughness. Furthermore, we analyze the temperature-dependent behavior of our resonators to learn about how the quasi-particle density in the Nb film is affected by the niobium crystal structure and the presence of grain boundaries. Then, we explore yet a different material platform by attempting to realize onchip NbTiN single photon detectors on LiNbO₃, an emerging photonic platform with high potential for scalable quantum information processing. We use DC reactive magnetron sputtering to grow high-quality NbTiN thin films and investigate the impact of substrate temperature during NbTiN growth. We achieve four nm thick superconducting films with a critical temperature (𝑇𝑐) of 12.3 K grown at a substrate temperature of 825 K. We demonstrate that the increased substrate temperature reduces the oxygen concentration in our films and improves the overall stoichiometry. In addition, we integrate these films with the LiNbO3 platform and investigate the obtained interface quality. Finally, we fabricate superconducting nanowire single photon detectors from the NbTiN film on LiNbO₃ and characterize the detector performance. Lastly, we report a gate-tunable Josephson diode effect in hybrid nanowire junctions consisting of a spin-orbit-coupled semiconductor core coated with epitaxial ferromagnetic insulator and superconductor shells. The wires display a hysteretic superconducting window as a function of axial magnetic field. In the superconducting regime, the devices exhibit nonreciprocal current transport, with the diode efficiency showing a strong dependence on back-gate voltage. The effect persists in a remanent magnetization state following a controlled demagnetization procedure, establishing zero-field operation. The combination of results presented in this thesis stress the importance of a material-focused approach in advancing the performance of quantum hardware. The novel hybrid material platforms developed in this thesis expand the operating regime of devices, which could enable future experiments involving gate-tunable superconductivity or topological properties. Similarly, we demonstrate that optimizing superconductor crystal structure benefits quantum devices, such as single-photon detectors and superconducting resonators.
We report on a fabrication process of superconducting weak links and superconducting transistors, which contain two-dimensional electrons in InAs/(AlGa)Sb quantum well. The superconducting transistors with lead alloy superconducting contacts were fabricated by using electron beam lithography, lift-off, and wet chemical etching processes. We have succeeded in fabricating a superconducting transistor with 0.4 µ m channel length and 0.17 µ m gate length between superconducting electrodes. Although the ideal performance of superconducting transistors has not been achieved yet, we present the results of superconducting weak links. The process of reducing contact resistance between lead alloy and InAs is also discussed, which is crucial to demonstrate the performance of the superconducting transistor.
Superconductor-normal metal-superconductor (SNS) junctions are well-suited for large-scale integrated superconducting circuits. Potential applications are programmable voltage standards, digital-to-analog converters and large-scale RSFQ circuits. The application of SNS junctions provides some advantages, e.g. a simplified fabrication technology and reduced parasitic inductances. But it requires a technological process with dimensions down to the submicrometer region to achieve sufficiently high characteristic voltages I/sub C/R/sub N/. In our process the normal metal interlayer is titanium. Therefore the sidewall insulation of the junctions can be made by anodization, as it is known from the Nb-Al technology. Nb-Ti-Nb Josephson junctions and junction arrays were fabricated down to the submicrometer range with I/sub C/R/sub N/ values up to 87 microvolt depending on the titanium thickness. Their measured critical currents have a small spread of about 10 percent. Shapiro steps are observed under the influence of microwave irradiation. For the application of such junctions in a programmable Josephson voltage standard a new type of microwave circuit using coplanar strips is proposed and successfully tested in 10 V SIS circuits.