Flux noise and flux creep in YBCO thin films

The authors used a DC SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device) to measure the low-frequency magnetic flux noise produced by thin-film rings of YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ (YBCO) with various microstructures. Below the transition temperature T _c of the YBCO, the spectral density of the noise scales as 1/f (f is the frequency) from 1 Hz to 1 kHz. This noise generally increases with temperature and vanishes abruptly at T_c . Improvements in crystalline microstructure greatly reduce the magnitude of the noise, which was lowest for a highly orientated sample with its c-axis perpendicular to the substrate. Making a radial cut to interrupt current paths around the sample ring does not significantly affect the magnitude of the noise, demonstrating that the noise arises from a local mechanism such as the thermally activated hopping of flux bundles. Flux creep was observed in one sample cooled in a magnetic field of 1 mT, and the creep rate exhibited a sharp maximum near 80 K. It is concluded that SQUIDs and flux transformers of YBCO must be fabricated from highly orientated films to obtain low noise at low frequencies