Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

300 GHz Operation of Divider Circuits using High-Jc Nb/NbxSi1-x/Nb Josephson Junctions

Published

Author(s)

David I. Olaya, Paul D. Dresselhaus, Samuel P. Benz

Abstract

We are investigating high-current-density Josephson junctions with Nb(x)Si(1-x)-barriers in single- flux-quantum (SFQ) digital circuits to evaluate their performance at clock frequencies of hundreds of gigahertz. We fabricated static divider SFQ circuits with a- Nb(x)Si(1-x) and a-Si barriers for Jc ranging from 3.5kA/cm^2 to 85 kA/cm^2. For the lower Jc range (3.5 kA/cm^2 to 17 kA/cm^2) we used optical lithography, and for the 85 kA/cm^2 junctions we used e-beam lithography. We measured SFQ circuits with a maximum operating speed of 300 GHz by use of intrinsically shunted junctions having sub-micrometer dimensions and an 85 kA/cm^2 critical current density. These results demonstrate that silicide-barrier junctions have the potential to achieve high-speed SFQ circuits and higher density circuits because the junctions are small and don’t require external shunt resistors.
Citation
IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity
Volume
25
Issue
3

Keywords

Josephson junctions, Josephson devices, Josephson logic, Niobium, Superconducting devices, Superconducting device fabrication

Citation

Olaya, D. , Dresselhaus, P. and Benz, S. (2014), 300 GHz Operation of Divider Circuits using High-Jc Nb/NbxSi1-x/Nb Josephson Junctions, IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/TASC.2014.2373317 (Accessed April 23, 2024)
Created December 18, 2014, Updated November 10, 2018