Specific capacitance of Josephson tunnel junctions

Abstract

The specific capacitance of several types of Josephson tunnel junctions has been measured by observing resonances in lightly-damped 2-junction interferometers. The capacitance was calculated using the resonance voltage, obtained by analyzing steps in the I-V characteristics, and the interferometer inductance, which was measured directly by the injection of a control current. Using this technique, the specific capacitance C <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">s</inf> was determined for tunnel junctions with Pb-In-Au alloy base electrodes and Pb-Bi counterelectrodes, as well as for junctions made on Nb films with Pb-In-Au counterelectrodes. In both cases, barriers were produced by rf plasma oxidation. Junctions with Josephson current densities j <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1</inf> between 200 and 5000 A/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> were investigated. It was found that 1/C <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">s</inf> decreased with <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">\log j_{1}</tex> , and that at j <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1</inf> = 1000 A/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , C <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">s</inf> was 4.2 ±0.3 μF/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> for the Pb-alloy junctions and 13.4 ±1 μF/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> for the Nb junctions. These results are discussed in relation to available data on oxide thickness and dielectric constant.