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Nano Letters

Current-Phase Relations of Superconducting PtSi Constriction Josephson Junctions

Tharanga Nanayakkara, Anthony T. Bollinger, Kevin Musick, Thomas Murray, Ekta Bhatia, Satyavolu S. Papa Rao, Charles T. Black, Mingzhao Liu

Published Jan 6, 2026• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We study the current-phase relations of superconductor-constriction-superconductor Josephson junctions made from platinum silicide thin films by fabricating dc-superconducting quantum interference devices incorporating pairs of junctions and measuring their magnetic-field-dependent electrical transport. By comparing the supercurrent interference patterns with numerical Ginzburg-Landau simulations, we extract the current-phase relations of individual junctions and quantify the degree of nonlinearity. These measurements show that while the constrictions themselves sustain substantial nonlinearity, the effect is moderated by the kinetic inductance of the device leads, which is an important consideration for practical superconducting circuit applications.

DOI
10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c04738

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We study the current-phase relations of superconductor-constriction-superconductor Josephson junctions made from platinum silicide thin films by fabricating dc-superconducting quantum interference devices incorporating pairs of junctions and measuring their magnetic-field-dependent electrical transport. By comparing the supercurrent interference patterns with numerical Ginzburg-Landau simulations, we extract the current-phase relations of individual junctions and quantify the degree of nonlinearity. These measurements show that while the constrictions themselves sustain substantial nonlinearity, the effect is moderated by the kinetic inductance of the device leads, which is an important consideration for practical superconducting circuit applications.
We evaluate the material characteristics of superconducting platinum silicide (PtSi) thin films as candidate materials for superconducting quantum information devices compatible with silicon technology. These films were synthesized using magnetron sputtering under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, followed by rapid thermal annealing. Polycrystalline PtSi films synthesized by this method have the favorable properties of superconducting critical temperature of 0.95 K and relatively long zero-temperature Ginzburg-Landau coherence length of 76 nm. We further studied coplanar microbridge devices fabricated by electron beam lithography and chlorine-free reactive ion etching, finding that the temperature-dependent critical current density follows the Ginzburg Landau depairing mechanism.
The predominantly dx2−y2-pairing symmetry in most high-Tc superconductors provides the opportunity to fabricate Josephson junction circuits in which part of the junctions are biased by a phase difference of the superconducting order parameter of π. We present fabrication and measurements of an all high-Tc dc superconducting quantum interference device (dc SQUID) realized with thin-film technology, of which the Josephson junctions consist of one standard junction and one junction with a π-phase shift. The characteristics of the π-SQUID are compared with the properties of a standard high-Tc SQUID.
The Josephson effect, tunnelling of a supercurrent through a thin insulator layer between two superconducting islands, is a phenomena characterized by a spatially distributed phase of the superconducting condensate. In recent years, there has been a growing focus on Josephson junction devices particularly for the applications of quantum metrology and superconducting qubits. In this study, we report the development of Josephson junction circuit formed by serially connecting many Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices, SQUIDs. We present experimental measurements as well as numerical simulations of a phase-slip center, a SQUID with weaker junctions, embedded in a Josephson junction chain. The DC transport properties of the chain are the result of phase slips which we simulate using a classical model that includes linear external damping, terminating impedance, as well as internal nonlinear quasiparticle damping. We find good agreement between the simulated and the experimental current voltage characteristics. The simulations allow us to examine the spatial and temporal distribution of phase-slip events occurring across the chains and also the existence of travelling voltage pulses which reflect at the chain edges.
Josephson junctions enable dissipation-less electrical current through metals and insulators below a critical current. Despite being central to quantum technology based on superconducting quantum bits and fundamental research into self-conjugate quasiparticles, the spatial distribution of super current flow at the junction and its predicted evolution with current bias and external magnetic field remain experimentally elusive. Revealing the hidden current flow, featureless in electrical resistance, helps understanding unconventional phenomena such as the nonreciprocal critical current, i.e., Josephson diode effect. Here we introduce a platform to visualize super current flow at the nanoscale. Utilizing a scanning magnetometer based on nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond, we uncover competing ground states electrically switchable within the zero-resistance regime. The competition results from the superconducting phase re-configuration induced by the Josephson current and kinetic inductance of thin-film superconductors. We further identify a new mechanism for the Josephson diode effect involving the Josephson current-induced phase. The nanoscale super current flow emerges as a new experimental observable for elucidating unconventional superconductivity, and optimizing quantum computation and energy-efficient devices. Diract imaging of supercurrent flow at a Josephson junction has been inaccessible in experiment. Here, using nanoscale magnetometry, the authors find large kinetic inductance of thin film superconductors can lead to competing Josephson vortex states hidden below the critical current, and also provide a new route towards the Josephson diode effect.
This thesis presents the results of the experimental studies on two kindof Superconducting circuits: one-dimensional Josephson junction chains andsuperconducting coplanar waveguide (CPW) resonators. One-dimensionalJosephson junction chains are constructed by connecting many Superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) in series. We have studied DC transport properties of the SQUID chains and model their nonlineardynamics with Thermally Activated Phase-Slips (TAPS). Experimental andsimulated results showed qualitative agreement revealing the existence of auniform phase-slipping and phase-sticking process which results in a voltage-independent current on the dissipative branch of the current-voltage char-acteristics (IVC). By modulating the effective Josephson coupling energy ofthe SQUIDs (EJ ) with an external magnetic field, we found that the ratio EJ /EC is a decisive factor in determining the qualitative shape of theIVC. A quantum phase transition between incoherent Quantum Phase Slip, QPS (supercurrent branch with a finite slope) to coherent QPS (IVC withwell-developed Coulomb blockade) via an intermediate state (supercurrentbranch with a remnant of Coulomb blockade) is observed as the EJ /EC ratio is tuned. This transition from incoherent QPS to the intermediate-statehappens around R0 ∼ RQ (RQ = h/4e^2 = 6.45kΩ). We also fabricated structured chains where a SQUID at the middle of the chain (central SQUID) has different junction size and loop area compared to other SQUIDs in the chain. Results showed that with these structured chains it is possible to localize andtune the amplitude of both TAPS and QPS at the central SQUID. The second part of the thesis describes the fabrication process and themeasurement results of superconducting CPW resonators. Resonators withdifferent design parameters were fabricated and measured. The transmissionspectra showed quality factors up to, Q ∼ 5 × 10^5 . We have observed bendingof the resonance curves to the lower frequencies due to existence of a nonlinear kinetic inductance. The origin of the nonlinear kinetic inductance isthe nonlinear relation between supercurrent density, Js, and superfluid veloc-ity, vs , of the charge carriers on the center line of the resonators. A simplemodel based on the Ginzburg-Landau theory is used in order to explain ob-served nonlinear kinetic inductance and estimates using this model showedgood agreement with the experimental results.
Abstract The progressive miniaturization of superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) used, e.g. for magnetic imaging on the nanoscale or for the detection of the magnetic states of individual magnetic nanoparticles causes increasing problems in realizing a proper flux-bias scheme for reading out the device. To overcome the problem, a multi-terminal, multi-junction layout has been proposed and realized recently for the SQUID-on-tip configuration, which uses constriction-type Josephson junctions (JJ). This geometry is also interesting for SQUIDs based on overdamped superconductor—normal metal—superconductor (SNS) JJ. We fabricated four-terminal, four-junction SQUIDs based on a trilayer Nb/HfTi/Nb process and study their static and dynamic transport properties in close comparison with numerical simulations based on the resistively and capacitively shunted junction model. Simulations and measurements are in very good agreement. However, there are large differences to the transport properties of conventional two-junction SQUIDs, including unusual phase-locked and chaotic dynamic states which we describe in detail. We further extract the current-phase relation of our SNS junctions, which turns out to be purely sinusoidal within the experimental error bars.