Low-dispersion ion-irradiated YBCO Josephson junctions for quantum interference antennas
Abstract
Josephson circuits based on high-temperature superconductors (HTS) hold great potential for a wide range of high performance, energy-efficient and compact electronic applications. However, the fabrication of HTS Josephson junctions (JJs) with highly reproducible characteristics remains challenging. This problem is relevant among others for Quantum Interference Antennas based on thousands of SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices), whose signal-to-noise ratio is dramatically affected by dispersion in the characteristics of the JJs that compose the SQUIDs. Here we show how to significantly reduce the dispersion in JJs fabricated on YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 via masked ion irradiation. This technique uses accelerated ions through a mask to create defects in a narrow region to depress superconductivity and create the Josephson barrier. We show that charge evacuation during ion irradiation is a critical parameter to minimize dispersion, which can be improved by a thin metallic layer on the mask. This results in a significant improvement in the dispersion of the Josephson coupling temperature and critical current of the JJs, by a factor of 3 and 1.5 respectively.
Related
- Structural control of two-level defect density revealed by high-throughput correlative measurements of Josephson junctions
- Parallel Simulation of Josephson Junctions With Multiplicative Noise
- Eddy currents and current reversal in curved magnetic thin-film Josephson junctions
- Finite-Temperature Transconductance of Multiterminal Josephson Junctions with Topological Andreev Spectra
- Hysteresis in Atomic Josephson Junctions
BibTeX
@article{menouni2026lowdispersion,
title = {{Low-dispersion ion-irradiated YBCO Josephson junctions for quantum interference antennas}},
author = {S Menouni and M Lecerf and D Crété and J Kermorvant and P Bortolotti and D Dolfi and C Ulysse and J Briatico and Javier Villegas and S Mesoraca and J Trastoy},
journal = {Superconductor Science and Technology},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1088/1361-6668/ae7d64},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05774709v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Low-dispersion ion-irradiated YBCO Josephson junctions for quantum interference antennas
AU - S Menouni
AU - M Lecerf
AU - D Crété
AU - J Kermorvant
AU - P Bortolotti
AU - D Dolfi
AU - C Ulysse
AU - J Briatico
AU - Javier Villegas
AU - S Mesoraca
AU - J Trastoy
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/28
JO - Superconductor Science and Technology
DO - 10.1088/1361-6668/ae7d64
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05774709v1
AB - Josephson circuits based on high-temperature superconductors (HTS) hold great potential for a wide range of high performance, energy-efficient and compact electronic applications. However, the fabrication of HTS Josephson junctions (JJs) with highly reproducible characteristics remains challenging. This problem is relevant among others for Quantum Interference Antennas based on thousands of SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices), whose signal-to-noise ratio is dramatically affected by dispersion in the characteristics of the JJs that compose the SQUIDs. Here we show how to significantly reduce the dispersion in JJs fabricated on YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 via masked ion irradiation. This technique uses accelerated ions through a mask to create defects in a narrow region to depress superconductivity and create the Josephson barrier. We show that charge evacuation during ion irradiation is a critical parameter to minimize dispersion, which can be improved by a thin metallic layer on the mask. This results in a significant improvement in the dispersion of the Josephson coupling temperature and critical current of the JJs, by a factor of 3 and 1.5 respectively.
SN - 0953-2048
SN - 1361-6668
ER -