Properties of stacked NbN tunnel junctions

Author

Hedbabny, H.J. ; Rogalla, H.

Author_Institution

Inst. fuer Angewandte Phys., Justus-Liebig-Univ. Giessen, West Germany

Volume

25

Issue

2

fYear

1989

fDate

3/1/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1231

Lastpage

1234

Abstract

Stacks of up to three tunnel junctions were fabricated using the NbN-MgO technique. Different preparation methods were tested, and two gave favorable results. In the first one, the whole stack is prepared in situ and structured afterwards by lift-off and reactive and argon ion etching. The authors investigated the resulting I-V (current-voltage) characteristics of stacks of 8.3 mV. Since it was not possible to establish electrical connections to the intermediate electrodes by this method, a second one was applied in which each NbN/MgO layer is prepared in a separate step and structured by lift-off. Here the I-V characteristics, the interaction between the tunnel junctions, and their RF properties were investigated. Shapiro steps and photon-assisted tunneling were observed in the I-V characteristics of a receiver junction, while the bottom tunnel junctions were used as microwave generators

Keywords

magnesium compounds; niobium compounds; superconducting junction devices; superconductive tunnelling; 8.3 mV; I-V characteristics; NbN-MgO; RF properties; Shapiro steps; bottom tunnel junctions; intermediate electrodes; ion etching; lift-off; photon-assisted tunneling; preparation methods; tunnel junctions; Argon; Electrodes; Fabrication; Josephson junctions; Magnetic properties; Superconducting materials; Superconducting microwave devices; Temperature; Transmitters; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.92518

Filename

92518