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arXiv:cond-mat/0308047 · Applied Physics Letters

Microwave distribution in stacked Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x intrinsic Josephson junctions in a transmission-line geometry

Myung‐Ho Bae, Hu-Jong Lee, Jinhee Kim, Kyu-Tae Kim

Published Sep 12, 2003• 19 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The microwave distribution inside a rectangular stack (15 μm×0.72 μm×60 nm) of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x intrinsic Josephson junctions (IJJs) was studied. The stack was microfabricated into a transmission-line geometry, with a-few-hundred-nm-thick Au layers deposited on the top and bottom of the stack. The microwave distribution was monitored by measuring the anomalous suppression of the tunneling critical current of the IJJs with varied microwave power at frequencies in the W band. This technique can provide valuable information on the microwave transmission modes inside the sandwiched stack of IJJs, which is utterly important for the high-frequency device applications using IJJs, such as fluxon-flow THz oscillators.

DOI
10.1063/1.1610258

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Superconductor Science and Technology•Jan 3, 2007•10 citations
The microwave distribution inside a rectangular stack (15 μm×0.72 μm×60 nm) of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x intrinsic Josephson junctions (IJJs) was studied. The stack was microfabricated into a transmission-line geometry, with a-few-hundred-nm-thick Au layers deposited on the top and bottom of the stack. The microwave distribution was monitored by measuring the anomalous suppression of the tunneling critical current of the IJJs with varied microwave power at frequencies in the W band. This technique can provide valuable information on the microwave transmission modes inside the sandwiched stack of IJJs, which is utterly important for the high-frequency device applications using IJJs, such as fluxon-flow THz oscillators.
The conventional c-axis intrinsic Josephson junction (IJJ) stack is usually fabricated from a piece of single crystal in such a way that it looks like a small mesa sitting on a big pedestal. In some cases the effects of this pedestal should be taken into account in order to explain the experimental observations. To avoid this problem we have developed a novel technique by which we are able to remove a small sample from the single crystal and place it on a substrate with low microwave loss. This enable us to couple it to other microwave devices such as antenna etc. This small sample, or junction stack, measures a few micrometers by a few micrometers in the a-b plane and a few hundred angstroms along the c-axis and is plated with normal metal on both the top and the bottom. To distinguish the structure from the conventional one, we call it an insular intrinsic Josephson junction stack. We carefully study current-voltage characteristics, microwave responses, frequency mixing properties, and discuss the possible applications.
Using a newly developed double-side fabrication method, an IJJ stack plus a bow-tie antenna and chokes were integrated in a slice 200 nm thick and singled out from inside a bulk Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x (BSCCO) single crystal. The junctions in the fabricated stack were very uniform, and the number of junctions involved was rather controllable. In addition to this method, which can be used to fabricate integrated circuits based on intrinsic Josephson junctions in high temperature (Tc) superconductors, also reported will be terahertz responses of IJJs, and the possible applications in quantum voltage standard, spectroscopy, and so on.
With a 10 μm×10 μm mesa patterned on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 single crystals, we measure the current–voltage (I–V) curves of a stack of intrinsic Josephson junctions. Current steps are observed at an equal voltage spacing of 4 mV when the sample is subjected to microwave radiation at around 7 GHz. With increase of the microwave power, more steps occur while the spacing between neighboring steps does not seem to change. The magnitude of each step depends on the microwave power in an oscillating way. Tuning the microwave frequency causes such steps to occur over separate frequency ranges, and each range is quite narrow. A temperature rise from 4.2 to 14.3 K completely quenches the step structures. Possible explanations for the step structures, based on resonances excited by microwave or geometric resonances in the junction cavity, are discussed.
With annular intrinsic Josephson junctions structured from a slice of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ single crystal 200nm thick, we have devised a way to inject fluxons into the junctions only by sweeping the bias current. The stacks have shown typical properties concerning Josephson fluxon conservation. These annular junctions are sensitive to microwave irradiation, and quite sharp Shapiro steps have been observed at ∼20GHz which is much lower than the plasma frequency of the junctions, indicating many applications can be possible with practically accessible microwave sources.
A nanometer-thick small mesa consiting of only two or three Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O y intrinsic Josephson junctions (IJJs) is studied through the switching current distribution measurements down to 0.4 K. Experimental results clearly show that the first switching events from the zero-voltage state for 1 K < T < 4 K are successfully described by a conventional thermal activation (TA) theory for a single Josephson junction, and that they become independent of temperature below T* ∼ 0.7 K. We observe the microwave-induced peak in the switching distribution at 0.4 K, which is induced by the microwave irradiation at 55 GHz. These results strongly suggest that the system crossovers to macroscopic quantum tunneling (MQT) regime below T* , which is as high as the previously reported value for a stacked IJJs with several tens of junctions, in contrast to the recent result on a similar mesa-structured surface IJJ.
We report an experimental observation of the macroscopic quantum tunnelling (MQT) in a d-wave high-temperature superconductor (HTSC) Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ intrinsic Josephson junction (IJJs). It is well known that the current-biased Josephson tunnel junction provides an ideal stage for studying a variety of macroscopic quantum phenomena such as MQT. They have been studied and observed in low-temperature superconductor (LTSC) Josephson junctions since the early 1980s and have been established well by now. On the other hand, in the case of HTSC the d-wave pairing symmetry allows for dissipative quasiparticle excitations within the superconducting energy gap, which is expected to severely interfere with an observation of MQT. Contrary to this naive conception, our experimental results have explained that the effects of the nodal quasiparticles are not strong enough to obscure the observation of the MQT. Furthermore, we found that the MQT in IJJs was observed at approximately 1 K, which was ten times higher than that of LTSC Josephson junctions. This higher classical-to-quantum crossover temperature is due to their high plasma frequency. We also discuss the resonant activation of IJJs in the presence of microwave radiation.