Karin Cedergren

Small epitaxial graphene devices for magnetosensing applications

Hall sensors with the width range from 0.5 to 20.0 mu m have been fabricated out of a monolayer graphene epitaxially grown on SiC. The sensors have been studied at room temperature using transport and noise spectrum measurements. The minimum detectable field of a typical 10-mu m graphene sensor is approximate to 2.5 mu T/root Hz, making them comparable with state of the art semiconductor devices of the same size and carrier concentration and superior to devices made of CVD graphene. Relatively high resistance significantly restricts performance of the smallest 500-nm devices. Carrier mobility is strongly size dependent, signifying importance of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors in the optimization of the device performance

Submicron YBaCuO biepitaxial Josephson junctions: d-wave effects and phase dynamics

We report a systematic study of the transport properties of high critical temperature superconductor (HTS) biepitaxial Josephson junctions in the submicron range. Junction performances point to more uniform and reproducible devices and to better control of d-wave intrinsic properties. Outcomes promote novel insights into the transport mechanisms across grain boundaries and encourage further developments in the control of dissipation in HTS devices. The application of nanotechnology to HTS could be an additional tool to properly engineer the junction properties to match specific circuit design also in view of the integration into hybrid quantum circuits

Insulating Josephson Junction Chains as Pinned Luttinger Liquids

Quantum physics in one spatial dimension is remarkably rich, yet even with strong interactions and disorder, surprisingly tractable. This is due to the fact that the low-energy physics of nearly all one-dimensional systems can be cast in terms of the Luttinger liquid, a key concept that parallels that of the Fermi liquid in higher dimensions. Although there have been many theoretical proposals to use linear chains and ladders of Josephson junctions to create novel quantum phases and devices, only modest progress has been made experimentally. One major roadblock has been understanding the role of disorder in such systems. We present experimental results that establish the insulating state of linear chains of submicron Josephson junctions as Luttinger liquids pinned by random offset charges, providing a one-dimensional implementation of the Bose glass, strongly validating the quantum many-body theory of one-dimensional disordered systems. The ubiquity of such an electronic glass in Josephson-junction chains has important implications for their proposed use as a fundamental current standard, which is based on synchronization of coherent tunneling of flux quanta (quantum phase slips).

Surface potential variations in epitaxial graphene devices investigated by Electrostatic Force Spectroscopy

Electrostatic Force Spectroscopy and Scanning Kelvin Probe Microscopy techniques are used to study the performance of side-gated Hall devices made of epitaxial graphene on 4H-SiC(0001). Electrostatic Force Spectroscopy is a novel method which allows quantitative surface potential measurements with high spatial resolution. Using these techniques, we calibrate work function of the metal coated tip and define the work functions for single and double-layer graphene. We also show that the use of moderate strength electrical fields in the side-gate geometry does not notably change the performance of the device.

Low contact resistance in epitaxial graphene devices for quantum metrology

We investigate Ti/Au contacts to monolayer epitaxial graphene on SiC (0001) for applications in quantum resistance metrology. Using three-terminal measurements in the quantum Hall regime we observed variations in contact resistances ranging from a minimal value of 0.6 Ω up to 11 kΩ. We identify a major source of high-resistance contacts to be due bilayer graphene interruptions to the quantum Hall current, whilst discarding the effects of interface cleanliness and contact geometry for our fabricated devices. Moreover, we experimentally demonstrate methods to improve the reproducibility of low resistance contacts (<10 Ω) suitable for high precision quantum resistance metrology.

Fabrication and properties of sub-micrometric YBCO biepitaxial junctions

We report on the fabrication procedure and the transport properties of submicron grain boundary biepitaxial YBCO Josephson junctions. These first results are very encouraging and justify further expectations on improved performances for such types of devices. A reduced and more controlled faceting along the grain boundary interface, for instance, will better preserve intrinsic d-wave effects, and favour the study of fluxons dynamics.

High critical temperature superconductor Josephson junctions for quantum circuit applications

Recent findings of macroscopic quantum properties in high critical temperature superconductor (HTS) Josephson junctions (JJs) point toward the need to revise the role of zero energy quasi-particles in this novel superconductor. We will discuss the possibility of designing superconducting artificial atoms in a transmon configuration to study the low energy excitation spectra of HTS. We have engineered high quality grain boundary JJs on low dielectric constant substrates. By fabricating submicron junctions, we extract values of capacitance and Josephson critical current densities that satisfy the main transmon design requirements. Moreover, the measured critical current noise power extrapolated at 1 Hz gives a dephasing time of 25 ns, which indicates that the observation of macroscopic quantum coherent effects in HTS JJ is a feasible task.

Parity effect and single-electron injection for Josephson junction chains deep in the insulating state

We have made a systematic investigation of charge transport in one-dimensional chains of Josephson junctions where the characteristic Josephson energy is much less than the single-junction Cooper-pair charging energy, EJ-ECP. Such chains are deep in the insulating state, where superconducting phase coherence across the chain is absent, and a voltage threshold for conduction is observed at the lowest temperatures. We find that Cooper-pair tunneling in such chains is completely suppressed. Instead, charge transport is dominated by tunneling of single electrons, which is very sensitive to the presence of BCS quasiparticles on the superconducting islands of the chain. Consequently, we observe a strong parity effect, where the threshold voltage vanishes sharply at a characteristic parity temperature T∗, which is significantly lower than the critical temperature Tc. A measurable and thermally activated zero-bias conductance appears above T∗, with an activation energy equal to the superconducting gap, confirming the role of thermally excited quasiparticles. Conduction below T∗ and above the voltage threshold occurs via injection of single electrons/holes into the Cooper-pair insulator, forming a nonequilibrium steady state with a significantly enhanced effective temperature. Our results explicitly show that single-electron transport dominates deep in the insulating state of Josephson junction arrays. This conduction process has mostly been ignored in previous studies of both superconducting junction arrays and granular superconducting films below the superconductor-insulator quantum phase transition.

Dynamics of a LC Shunted

We have measured the energy level separation from the ground state to the first excited state in a high critical temperature superconductor d-wave Josephson junction. We observe that the bias current dependence of the energy level separation is strongly affected by the large shunt capacitance and inductance of the junction electrodes. In order to describe the effect of a shunt capacitance and shunt inductance on the junction dynamics we derive the equation of motion of the total system. In general such a circuit displays two resonance frequencies corresponding to two different energy scales. We discuss various limits for the values of the shunt inductor and capacitor.

{\rm YBa}_{2}{\rm Cu}_{3}{\rm O}_{7{\hbox {-}}\delta}

The predominant d-wave pairing symmetry in high temperature superconductors leads to an unconventional current?phase relation in Josephson junctions. This circumstance may induce new effects in the dynamics of dc SQUIDs. In this contribution we report on the measurements of the dependence of the SQUID Josephson current on the external magnetic field taken at very low temperatures, down to 20?mK. Different grain boundaries have been fabricated by using the biepitaxial and the bicrystal technique. Some of the effects which are induced by a nonsinusoidal current?phase relation can be clearly identified in the dynamics of the SQUIDs. The experimental data are also compared with theoretical simulations taking into account the inductance of the loop. The data show that, in specific conditions, a non-negligible inductance of the loop can induce effects similar to an unconventional current?phase relation, with a pronounced second harmonic sin(2) term. This fact has to be taken into account when designing d-wave SQUIDs for quantum circuitry.