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IEEE International Superconductive Electronics Conference (ISEC)

Inductance investigation of single layer and multilayer YBa2Cu3O7-δ thin films grown by reactive coevaporation

Han Cai, Hao Li, Ethan Y. Cho, Jay C. LeFebvre, Yanting Wang, Shane A. Cybart

Published Jul 1, 2019• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The performance of Josephson based devices strongly depend on the inductance properties associated with the material and circuit design. Here we compare the inductance of YBa2Cu3O7-δfilms with and without superconducting ground planes grown by reactive coevaporation. Specifically, we fabricated several superconducting quantum interference devices from single and multi-layer films with different geometries using a focused helium ion beam. Measurements of device electrical transport properties were analyzed to experimentally determine the sheet inductance. Additionally, measurements of the temperature dependence of the inductance was used to separate the contributions from geometric and kinetic inductance. We find that the presence of the ground plane in the multi-layer structure reduces the contribution of geometric inductance with no detectable change in the kinetic inductance.

DOI
10.1109/isec46533.2019.8990933

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The performance of Josephson based devices strongly depend on the inductance properties associated with the material and circuit design. Here we compare the inductance of YBa2Cu3O7-δfilms with and without superconducting ground planes grown by reactive coevaporation. Specifically, we fabricated several superconducting quantum interference devices from single and multi-layer films with different geometries using a focused helium ion beam. Measurements of device electrical transport properties were analyzed to experimentally determine the sheet inductance. Additionally, measurements of the temperature dependence of the inductance was used to separate the contributions from geometric and kinetic inductance. We find that the presence of the ground plane in the multi-layer structure reduces the contribution of geometric inductance with no detectable change in the kinetic inductance.
In this work, we demonstrate the ability to fabricate superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) by directly writing Josephson junctions into the plane of YBa2Cu3O7−δ thin films with a focused helium ion beam. This technique allows for the control of the Josephson barrier transport properties through the single parameter, ion dose. SQUIDs written with a dose of 4 × 1016 ions/cm2 had metallic barrier junctions that exhibited nearly ideal electrical transport characteristics at 50 K and a flux noise of 20 μΦ0/Hz at 10 Hz. At higher irradiation doses, the SQUIDs had insulating barrier Josephson junctions with a quasi particle energy gap edge at 20 meV.
Inductance plays a crucial role in the design and optimization of superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) for quantum sensing applications, since it dictates the sensitivity and coupling ratio with other circuit elements. In high-temperature superconductors the kinetic inductance, which depends on both geometry and temperature, becomes a dominant part of the device's total self-inductance, since their London penetration depth is considerably larger compared to low-temperature superconductors. In this work, we use an asymmetric SQUID to investigate the kinetic self-inductance ratio and voltage modulation depth at different operating temperatures, device geometries and bias currents. We first validate our approach by comparing our modelled data with experimental measurements. Then, through numerical simulations, we show: (i) kinetic inductance dominates for thin superconducting films, while for thicker films the inductance is less sensitive to temperature changes; (ii) the voltage modulation depth decreases exponentially with the total inductance independent of the asymmetry ratio; (iii) narrower superconducting tracks lead to a broader temperature operation range, ΔT∼30KΔT \sim 30 KΔT∼30K, while wider tracks operate in a smaller temperature range, ΔT∼10KΔT \sim 10 KΔT∼10K, but are more sensitive to temperature changes; and (iv) the device performance versus temperature strongly depends on the bias current used.
We present measurements of the self- and mutual inductance of NbN and NbN/Nb bilayer inductors (microstrips, striplines, serpentines, etc.) with Nb ground plane(s) fabricated in an advanced process for superconductor electronics developed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. In this process, the signal traces of logic cell inductors are made either of a 200-nm NbN layer with${{\bm{T}}}_{\bm{c}} \approx 15.5Koranin−situdepositedNbN/Nbbilayer,replacinga200−nmNblayerM6inthestandardSFQ5eeprocesswithninesuperconductinglayerson200−mmwafers.Nbgroundplanesarepreservedtomaintainahighlevelofinterlayershieldingandlowintralayermutualcoupling.Atwo−steppatterningofthetopNbandthebottomNbNlayersoftheNbN/Nbbilayerallowsthecreationofinductorswithaverywiderangeofinductances,fromlowvalues∼0.4pH/μmtypicalforNbgeometricalinductorsto∼35pH/μmtypicalforthin−filmkineticinductors.ThemutualinductanceofvariouscombinationsofNbN,Nb,andNbN/Nbinductorsdoesnotdependonsuperconductingpropertiesofthesignaltracesinthestudiedrangeoflinewidths,15.5 K or an in-situ deposited NbN/Nb bilayer, replacing a 200-nm Nb layer M6 in the standard SFQ5ee process with nine superconducting layers on 200-mm wafers. Nb ground planes are preserved to maintain a high level of interlayer shielding and low intralayer mutual coupling. A two-step patterning of the top Nb and the bottom NbN layers of the NbN/Nb bilayer allows the creation of inductors with a very wide range of inductances, from low values ∼0.4 pH/μm typical for Nb geometrical inductors to ∼35 pH/μm typical for thin-film kinetic inductors. The mutual inductance of various combinations of NbN, Nb, and NbN/Nb inductors does not depend on superconducting properties of the signal traces in the studied range of linewidths,15.5Koranin−situdepositedNbN/Nbbilayer,replacinga200−nmNblayerM6inthestandardSFQ5eeprocesswithninesuperconductinglayerson200−mmwafers.Nbgroundplanesarepreservedtomaintainahighlevelofinterlayershieldingandlowintralayermutualcoupling.Atwo−steppatterningofthetopNbandthebottomNbNlayersoftheNbN/Nbbilayerallowsthecreationofinductorswithaverywiderangeofinductances,fromlowvalues∼0.4pH/μmtypicalforNbgeometricalinductorsto∼35pH/μmtypicalforthin−filmkineticinductors.ThemutualinductanceofvariouscombinationsofNbN,Nb,andNbN/Nbinductorsdoesnotdependonsuperconductingpropertiesofthesignaltracesinthestudiedrangeoflinewidths,{\bm{w}};itequalsthemutualinductanceoftheNbinductorswiththeequivalentgeometryandplacementbetweenthegroundplanes.ThemeasuredmagneticfieldpenetrationdepthinNbNfilmsdepositedbyreactivesputteringat200°CisλNbN=491±5nm.Themeasuredkineticinductanceofthefilmswiththicknesses; it equals the mutual inductance of the Nb inductors with the equivalent geometry and placement between the ground planes. The measured magnetic field penetration depth in NbN films deposited by reactive sputtering at 200 °C isλNbN= 491 ± 5 nm. The measured kinetic inductance of the films with thicknesses;itequalsthemutualinductanceoftheNbinductorswiththeequivalentgeometryandplacementbetweenthegroundplanes.ThemeasuredmagneticfieldpenetrationdepthinNbNfilmsdepositedbyreactivesputteringat200°CisλNbN=491±5nm.Themeasuredkineticinductanceofthefilmswiththicknesses{\bm{t}}\ = {\bm{\ }}200nmand150nm,respectively1.51pH/sqand2.06pH/sq,islargerthanthatexpectedforconventionalsuperconductorswithshortmeanfreepath,correspondingtoabout25200 nm and 150 nm, respectively 1.51 pH/sq and 2.06 pH/sq, is larger than that expected for conventional superconductors with short mean free path, corresponding to about 25% lower superfluid density. We also measured kinetic inductance of the right-angle bends of NbN striplines and found it to be negligible at200nmand150nm,respectively1.51pH/sqand2.06pH/sq,islargerthanthatexpectedforconventionalsuperconductorswithshortmeanfreepath,correspondingtoabout25{\bm{w}} < {\bm{\lambda }}_{{\bm{NbN}}}^2/{\bm{t}}$, indicating an insignificant effect of current crowding in the presence of superconducting ground plane(s). Implementing NbN and NbN/Nb kinetic inductors enables a significant increase in the integration scale of superconductor digital electronics.
We report on the fabrication and characterization of nanopatterned superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) based on grain boundary Josephson junctions in epitaxially grown multilayer YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO)/SiTrO3 (STO) thin films. Nanopatterning is performed by Ga+ focused ion beam milling. The evolution of the electric transport and noise properties of the YBCO nanoSQUIDs over a time span of more than one year are recorded and analyzed. We find that the multilayer YBCO/STO nanoSQUIDs show stable and high performance over time. The critical current decreases within ∼40 days by 30%–50% and then remains almost constant without obvious decline trend for nanoSQUIDs with STO layer as the interface even more than 380 days, which demonstrates the superiority of STO as the capping layer. Moreover, we find that the multilayer nanoSQUIDs have about an order of magnitude smaller low-frequency excess flux noise (compared to similar single layer devices) with root-mean-square spectral density ∼5–6 µΦ0/Hz1/2 at 1 Hz. For one device, we show that the low-frequency excess noise does not degrade within three months.
A dc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) with coplanar control lines has been fabricated from a single layer of YBa2Cu3O7 thin film. Step-edge junctions were formed using resist/Si double-mask layers. Current–voltage characteristics of this SQUID at 77 K show Shapiro steps under microwave irradiation and are qualitatively consistent with the resistively shunted junction (RSJ) model. The spacing between the closed loop and the coplanar control lines in the tested SQUIDs ranged from 0.2 to 1.5 μm. The measured output voltage-control current characteristics showed that the experimentally derived mutual inductances were a function of the spacing, in agreement with the calculated results. The typical mutual inductance for a spacing of 1.0 μm was ∼0.5 pH, which is adequate for detecting signals of flux-transfer logic gates in which the typical logic amplitude is ∼0.1 mA. A coplanar structure is thus useful for logic gate applications.
We have fabricated direct-injection high-Tc superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) with integrated YBa2Cu3O7−x (YBCO) ground planes in the upper part of structure. The YBCO/PrBa2Cu3O7−x(PBCO)/YBCO edge junctions with 10-nm-thick PBCO barriers showed RSJ-like current-voltage (I–V) characteristics before and after the ground plane formation. We measured the voltage modulations of these SQUIDs with two different hole sizes to evaluate the line inductance. At a temperature of 30 K, the estimated line inductance under the ground plane was about 1.0 pH/□, while the estimated line inductance without the ground plane was 2.8 pH/□.