Magnesium diboride superconductor thin film tunnel junctions for superconductive electronics

Abstract

Based on superconducting Mg B2 films with higher critical temperature of 39 K and the advantage of the conventional superconductors, those that follow Bardeen-Cooper-Shrieffer theory, fabrication of quasiparticle, and Josephson tunnel junctions have been investigated. To explore the potential of Mg B2 for superconductive electronics, the essentials such as clean high quality thin film surfaces and reproducible tunnel junction fabrication are addressed. Our results show clean tunneling characteristics for in situ prepared Mg B2 junctions on Si wafer with the measured superconducting energy gap values in good agreement with theory and the feasibility of the technology. The recent results on all-epitaxial Mg B2 MgOMg B2 Josephson junctions will be also reported. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.