Development of superconducting tunnel junctions with an aluminum-oxide insulation layer for X-ray detection

Author

Sato, H. ; Ikeda, T. ; Kato, H. ; Kawai, K. ; Miyasaka, H. ; Oku, T. ; Ootani, W. ; Otani, C. ; Shimizu, H.M. ; Watanabe, H. ; Nakagawa, H. ; Akoh, H. ; Aoyagi, M. ; Taino, T. ; Inaba, K. ; Kino, Y.

Author_Institution

RIKEN, Inst. of Phys. & Chem. Res., Saitama, Japan

Volume

9

Issue

2

fYear

1999

fDate

6/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

4475

Lastpage

4478

Abstract

Superconducting tunnel junctions (STJ), with a buffer layer between the silicon substrate and junction, are being developed for use as high-resolution X-ray detectors. Aluminum-oxide (Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/) is employed as the buffer layer in order to suppress the phonon mediated background from the Si substrate. The extent of phonon insulation was studied by measuring the X-ray spectra of STJs as a function of buffer layer thickness. The phonon insulation ability of Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ was compared to that of magnesium-oxide. The Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ layer should be a good phonon insulator, with the ability to suppress phonons with a single buffer layer.

Keywords

X-ray detection; alumina; niobium; superconducting particle detectors; superconductive tunnelling; Nb-Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/-Si; X-ray detection; aluminum oxide buffer layer; phonon insulation; silicon substrate; superconducting tunnel junction; Buffer layers; Etching; Fabrication; Insulation; Josephson junctions; Laboratories; Niobium; Phonons; Superconducting epitaxial layers; X-ray detectors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Applied Superconductivity, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1051-8223

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/77.784019

Filename

784019