Dynamic properties of high-Tc superconducting nano-junctions made with a focused helium ion beam

Abstract

We report on DC and RF properties of high-T c Josephson Junctions fabricated by mean of a Helium ion beam focused at sub-nanometer scale, which locally modifies the superconductor. Starting from a 50 nm thick YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 film, we made Josephson junctions with different irradiation doses from 200 to 600 ions/nm, and study their behavior as a function of temperature. Current-voltage characteristics are well fitted within the Resistively-Shunted-Junction (RSJ) model, suitable for Superconductor-Normal-Superconductor junctions. The characteristic frequency f c = (2e/h)I c R n reaches ∼ 300 GHz at low temperature. We studied the AC Josephson effect in the frequency regime f < f c where clear Shapiro steps can be seen, whose width under 40 GHz irradiation was measured using the "detector response" method. We showed that the corresponding Josephson oscillation linewidth is only limited by the thermal noise in the RSJ model for temperature ranging from T ∼ 20 K to 75 K. At lower temperature and for the highest irradiation dose, the shot noise contribution must also be taken into account when approaching the tunneling regime. We conclude that these Josephson nanojunctions present the lowest noise level possible, which makes them very promising for future applications in the microwave and terahertz regimes.