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Low magnetic flux noise observed in laser-deposited in situ films of YB2Cu3Oy and implications for high- Tc SQUIDs

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Abstract

THE first device made from a thin film of a high-transition-temperature (high-Tc) superconductor was a d.c. SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device)1. Many applications of SQUIDs demand high sensitivity at low frequencies f( ≤1 Hz), and thus require films with low intrinsic '1/f magnetic flux noise2, 3. Although the level of 1/f noise in T2Ba2Ca2Cu3Ox SQUIDs4 is significantly lower than that in earlier YBa2Cu3O3, (YBCO) SQUIDs1, it remains higher than that in low-Tc devices. In post-annealed films of YBCO, the magnitude of the 1/f noise has been shown5 to decrease dramatically as the quality of the films is improved. Here we report measurements of flux noise in a film of YBCO grown in situ by pulsed laser deposition (but not patterned into a SQUID). The 1/f noise level was two orders of magnitude lower than in our best post-annealed film. Provided that it proves possible to fabricate suitable low-noise Josephson junctions, a d.c. SQUID made from a film of this quality and operated at liquid-nitrogen temperature (77 K) should approach the low-frequency performance currently achieved in commerically available Iow-Tc SQUIDs.

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Author notes

  1. John Clarke: To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA

    M. J. Ferrari, Mark Johnson, Frederick C. Wellstood & John Clarke

  2. Center for Advanced Materials, Materials and Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA

    M. J. Ferrari, Mark Johnson, Frederick C. Wellstood & John Clarke

  3. Department of Physics, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, 08854, USA

    A. Inam & X. D. Wu

  4. Bellcore, Red Bank, New Jersey, 07701, USA

    L. Nazar & T. Venkatesan

Authors
  1. M. J. Ferrari
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  2. Mark Johnson
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  3. Frederick C. Wellstood
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  4. John Clarke
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  5. A. Inam
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  6. X. D. Wu
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  7. L. Nazar
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  8. T. Venkatesan
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Ferrari, M., Johnson, M., Wellstood, F. et al. Low magnetic flux noise observed in laser-deposited in situ films of YB2Cu3Oy and implications for high- Tc SQUIDs. Nature 341, 723–725 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/341723a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/341723a0

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