YBa2Cu3O7 24∘ (30∘) bicrystal grain boundary junctions (GBJs), shunted with 60\,nm (20\,nm) thick Au, were fabricated by focused ion beam milling with widths 80nm≤w≤7.8μm. At 4.2\,K we find critical current densities jc in the 105A/cm2 range %\dkc{\#1} (without a clear dependence on w) and an increase in resistance times junction area ρ with an approximate scaling ρ∝w1/2. For the narrowest GBJs jcρ≈100μV, which is promising for the realization of sensitive nanoSQUIDs for the detection of small spin systems. We demonstrate that our fabrication process allows the realization of sensitive nanoscale dc SQUIDs; for a SQUID with w≈100\,nm wide GBJs we find an rms magnetic flux noise spectral density of SΦ1/2≈4μΦ0/Hz1/2 in the white noise limit. We also derive an expression for the spin sensitivity Sμ1/2, which depends on SΦ1/2, on the location and orientation of the magnetic moment of a magnetic particle to be detected by the SQUID, and on the SQUID geometry. For the not optimized SQUIDs presented here, we estimate Sμ1/2=390μB/Hz, which could be further improved by at least an order of magnitude.
@article{arxiv.1009.2657,
title = {YBa2Cu3O7 grain boundary junctions and low-noise superconducting quantum interference devices patterned by a focused ion beam down to 80 nm linewidth},
author = {J. Nagel and K. B. Konovalenko and M. Kemmler and M. Turad and R. Werner and E. Kleisz and S. Menzel and R. Klingeler and B. Büchner and R. Kleiner and D. Koelle},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1009.2657},
year = {2010}
}