Low-noise rf SQUID washers fabricated from YBa2Cu3O7 epitaxial thin films have been used to construct a first-order electronic gradiometer operating at 77 K and suitable for biomagnetic measurements. Mechanical adjustment of the two-SQUID gradiometric setup made it possible to attenuate signals due to far magnetic field sources by three orders of magnitude. A magnetic field resolution of ≤280 fT/Hz1/2 above 2 Hz was attained through the use of large flux focusers. The fine structure of human heart magnetocardiograms was recorded in unshielded space. In a shielded room, magnetoencephalograms were obtained. The system was used to obtain new data on auditory evoked cortical response.

Summary: We have developed high-critical-temperature radio-frequency Super conducting QUantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) with step-edge grain-boundary Josephson junctions and large flux focusers. These planar devices were fabricated from epitaxial YBa2Cu307 filmS and operated in the magnetometer and first-order gradiometer configurations while immersed in liquid nitrogen. At the temperature of 77K, we have attained a magnetic field resolution for the magnetometer better than 200 fr/Hz 1/2 down to less than 1 Hz, i.e., over the low signal frequency range important for medical diagnostics. The results to date show a high promise for biomagnetic diagnostics. For the first time, we recorded the evoked responses from human brains using a high-temperature magnetometer and a first-order electronic gradiometer channel simultaneously. These results were obtained in a magnetically shielded room. An improvement in the magnetic field resolution by another order of magnitude is possible and probable.

We fabricated and characterized microwave rf SQUIDs integrated into a planar, S-shaped λ/2 microstrip resonator. This 3 GHz resonator was fabricated from a pulsed-laser-deposited YBa2Cu3O7 epitaxial film. The SQUID structures incorporated double step-edge junctions and had a loop inductance of 120 pH. Such unoptimized SQUIDs operated between 4.2 and 85 K with dV/dΦ=18–20 μV/Φ0 at 77 K. At that temperature, the energy resolution of (8±2)×10−29 J/Hz above 0.1 Hz (in the best samples) was limited by the white noise, SΦ1/2=(7±1)×10−5 Φ0/Hz1/2. Optimization may increase dV/dΦ and improve the energy resolution by up to an order of magnitude.

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