English

YBa2Cu3O7 grain boundary junctions and low-noise superconducting quantum interference devices patterned by a focused ion beam down to 80 nm linewidth

Superconductivity 2010-09-15 v1

Abstract

YBa2_2Cu3_3O7_7 24^\circ (30^\circ) bicrystal grain boundary junctions (GBJs), shunted with 60\,nm (20\,nm) thick Au, were fabricated by focused ion beam milling with widths 80nmw7.8μ80\,{\rm nm} \le w \le 7.8\,\mum. At 4.2\,K we find critical current densities jcj_c in the 105A/cm210^5\,{\rm A/cm^2} range %\dkc{\#1} (without a clear dependence on ww) and an increase in resistance times junction area ρ\rho with an approximate scaling ρw1/2\rho\propto w^{1/2}. For the narrowest GBJs jcρ100μj_c\rho\approx 100\,\muV, 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 w100w\approx 100\,nm wide GBJs we find an rms magnetic flux noise spectral density of SΦ1/24μΦ0/Hz1/2S_\Phi^{1/2}\approx 4\,\mu\Phi_0/{\rm Hz}^{1/2} in the white noise limit. We also derive an expression for the spin sensitivity Sμ1/2S_\mu^{1/2}, which depends on SΦ1/2S_\Phi^{1/2}, 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/HzS_\mu^{1/2}=390\,\mu_B/\sqrt{\rm{Hz}}, which could be further improved by at least an order of magnitude.

Keywords

Cite

@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}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T16:13:42.602Z