Microwave Response of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ Surface Intrinsic Josephson Junctions with Bending Pancake Vortices

We study the microwave response of surface intrinsic Josephson junctions on Bi2Sr2 CaCu2O8＋δ, in which bending pancake vortex lines are introduced in a controllable way. It is found that the bending vortices can greatly influence the response. In some cases, typical Shapiro steps that lie far above the quasiparticle branch are observed, with the step interval satisfying the Josephson relation and their amplitude versus the square root of microwave power following the Bessel function behaviour. In the other cases, current steps that lie on the quasiparticle branch are observed, but only one or two steps appear at the same time under the variation of the microwave power.     

Study of Nb/Nb_xSi_(1-x)/Nb Josephson junction arrays

Owing to the adjustable characteristics and superior etching properties of co-sputtered Nbx Si1-x film, we are trying to fabricate Nb/Nbx Si1-x/Nb Josephson junction arrays for voltage standard. It is important to find the suitable Nbx Si1-x barrier for the junctions. Josephson junctions with different barrier content are fabricated. Current–voltage characteristics are measured and analyzed. It is demonstrated in this paper that critical current can be adjusted by using different barrier content and thickness. Shapiro steps of five hundred junctions in series are observed.     

Magnetic Field Dependence of the Critical Current of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8＋δ-Based Intrinsic Josephson Junctions

Well-characterized surface intrinsic Josephson junctions (IJJs) on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 δ single crystals are fabricated by in situ cryogenic cleavage of the crystals and immediate evaporation of A u films on the crystal surface. Magnetic field dependences of the critical currents of the surface and inner I33s are carefully measured. We find that the     

A trilayer process for the fabrication of Al phase qubits

Herein we develop an Al/AlOx/Al trilayer process,feasible to fabricate complex circuits with wiring crossovers,for the preparation of Al junctions and phase qubits.The AlOx layer is obtained by in situ thermal oxidation,which provides high-quality junction tunnel barriers.The Al junctions show a considerably low leakage current and the Josephson critical current density can be conveniently controlled in the range of a few to above 100 A/cm2,which is favorable in the phase qubit application.Macroscopic quantum tunneling,energy spectrum,energy relaxation time,Rabi oscillation,and Ramsey interference of the Al phase qubits are measured,demonstrating clearly quantum coherent dynamics with a timescale of 10 ns.Further improvements of the coherent dynamic properties of the device are discussed.     

Critical current density behaviors across a grain boundary inclined to current with different angles in YBa_2Cu_3O_(7-δ) bicrystal junctions

The critical current density behaviors across a bicrystal grain boundary(GB) inclined to the current direction with different angles in YBa_2Cu_3O_(7-δ) bicrystal junctions in magnetic fields are investigated.There are two main reasons for the difference in critical current density in junctions at different GB inclined angles in the same magnetic field:(i) the GB plane area determines the current carrying cross section;(ii) the vortex motion dynamics at the GB affects the critical current value when the vortex starts to move along the GB by Lorentz force.Furthermore,the vortex motion in a bicrystal GB is studied by investigating transverse(Hall) and longitudinal current–voltage characteristics(I–V_(xx) and I–V_(xy)).It is found that the I–V_(xx) curve diverges from linearity at a high driving current,while the I–V_(xy) curve keeps nearly linear,which indicates the vortices inside the GB break out of the GB by Lorentz force.     

Fiske steps in surface intrinsic Josephson junctions of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ single crystals

Current－voltage characteristics of the surface intrinsic Josephson junctions under a magnetic field parallel to CuO_2 planes have been studied experimentally. Fiske steps in such a junction have been observed. The Swihart velocity for the junction is found to be 7.2×10^5m/s, which corresponds to the velocity mode of a single junction.     

Transport mechanism of reverse surface leakage current in AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistor with SiN passivation

The transport mechanism of reverse surface leakage current in the AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistor(HEMT) becomes one of the most important reliability issues with the downscaling of feature size.In this paper,the research results show that the reverse surface leakage current in AlGaN/GaN HEMT with SiN passivation increases with the enhancement of temperature in the range from 298 K to 423 K.Three possible transport mechanisms are proposed and examined to explain the generation of reverse surface leakage current.By comparing the experimental data with the numerical transport models,it is found that neither Fowler-Nordheim tunneling nor Frenkel-Poole emission can describe the transport of reverse surface leakage current.However,good agreement is found between the experimental data and the two-dimensional variable range hopping(2D-VRH) model.Therefore,it is concluded that the reverse surface leakage current is dominated by the electron hopping through the surface states at the barrier layer.Moreover,the activation energy of surface leakage current is extracted,which is around 0.083 eV.Finally,the SiN passivated HEMT with a high Al composition and a thin AlGaN barrier layer is also studied.It is observed that 2D-VRH still dominates the reverse surface leakage current and the activation energy is around 0.10 eV,which demonstrates that the alteration of the AlGaN barrier layer does not affect the transport mechanism of reverse surface leakage current in this paper.     

Discharge Characteristics in Atmospheric Pressure Glow Surface Discharge in Helium Gas

Atmospheric pressure glow discharge is observed for the first time in a surface discharge generator in flowing helium. Electrical and optical methods are used to measure the characteristics of atmospheric pressure glow discharge for different voltages. The results show that discharge current waveforms are asymmetric for the different polarities of the applied voltage. A continuous discharge profile with a width of several microseconds appears for per half cycle of the applied voltage when the voltage is increased to a certain value. The short-pulsed discharge and the continuous current would result from the Townsend breakdown and glow discharge mechanisms respectively. The properties of surface discharge in stagnant helium are completely different from that in flowing helium.     

Phase Locking and Chaos in a Josephson Junction Array Shunted by a Common Resistance

The dynamics of a Josephson junction array shunted by a common resistance are investigated by using numerical methods. Coexistence of phase locking and chaos is observed in the system when the resistively and capacitively shunted junction model is adopted. The corresponding parameter ranges for phase locking and chaos are presented. When there are three resistively shunted junctions in the array, chaos is found for the first time and the parameter range for chaos is also presented. According to the theory of Chernikov and Schmidt, when there are four or more junctions in the array, the system exhibits chaotic behavior. Our results indicate that the theory of Chernikov and Schmidt is not exactly appropriate.     

Statistical model for combustion of high-metal magnesium-based hydro-reactive fuel

<正>We investigate experimentally and analytically the combustion behavior of a high-metal magnesium-based hydroreactive fuel under high temperature gaseous atmosphere.The fuel studied in this paper contains 73%magnesium powders.An experimental system is designed and experiments are carried out in both argon and water vapor atmospheres. It is found that the burning surface temperature of the fuel is higher in water vapor than that in argon and both of them are higher than the melting point of magnesium,which indicates the molten state of magnesium particles in the burning surface of the fuel.Based on physical considerations and experimental results,a mathematical one-dimensional model is formulated to describe the combustion behavior of the high-metal magnesium-based hydro-reactive fuel.The model enables the evaluation of the burning surface temperature,the burning rate and the flame standoff distance each as a function of chamber pressure and water vapor concentration.The results predicted by the model show that the burning rate and the surface temperature increase when the chamber pressure and the water vapor concentration increase,which are in agreement with the observed experimental trends.     

Interfaces in ionic devices

The technology of Ionics is based on the availability of materials with fast ion transport. Individual materials are, however, meaningless from a practical point of view; all applications require combinations of materials with appropriate ionic and electronic properties. This situation is similar to Electronics which requires combinations of semi-conducting or metallic conducting materials with differences in the chemical potentials of the electrons. The technology of Ionics requires interfaces between ionic and electronic conductors which generate strong electrical fields or allow to modify the field by the application of external voltages. Ions and electrons equilibrate both at these “ionic junctions”. While semi-conductor junctions have commonly a width in the μm-range, the space charge region is several orders of magnitude smaller in the case of ionic junctions, i.e. in the nm or even sub-nm-range. The interfaces have to be chemically stable for the lifetime of the device which is difficult to achieve in view of the commonly large number of components present in both phases and the existence of mobile species with sometimes large variations in the activity of the electroactive component. Furthermore, the kinetics of transfer of ions across the interface has to be fast to allow high current densities which are required in many cases. In addition, two such interfaces are required to convert the electronic current into an ionic one and again back into an electronic current at the opposite side of the electrolyte. The development of ionic devices depends to the strongest extent on the engineering of appropriate interfaces. Examples of the role and engineering of interfaces will be presented for applicationes such as chemical sensors, electrochromic devices, fuel cells, batteries and photogalvanic solar cells.     

STM observation of pit formation and evolution during the epitaxial growth of Si on Si(001) surface

Pit formation and surface morphological evolution in Si(001) homoepitaxy are investigated by using scanning tunneling microscopy. Anti-phase boundary is found to give rise to initial generation of pits bound by bunched D B steps. The terraces break up and are reduced to a critical nucleus size with pit formation. Due to anisotropic kinetics, a downhill bias diffusion current, which is larger along the dimer rows through the centre area of the terrace than through the area close to the edge, leads to the prevalence of pits bound by {101} facets. Subsequent annealing results in a shape transition from {101}-faceted pits to multi-faceted pits.     

Biased Motion in a Symmetric Periodic Potential by Breaking Temporal Symmetry

Unidirectional transport of a particle in a spatially periodic and symmetric potential under a periodic force with broken temporal symmetry is studied.With a collaboration of the potential field and the asymmetric ac force,a dc current can be observed.Resonant current steps are found for a finite period of the ac force.A phase diagram of these resonant steps is given.Stochastic-resonance-like directional transport induced by thermal nonises is revealed.     

Monte Carlo Study of CO-NO Catalytic Surface Reaction Including CO-CO Repulsion

The CO-NO reaction on a catalytic surface is studied by using Langmuir-Hinshclwood thermal mechanism with Monte Carlo computer simulation. In this model, a novel concept of CO CO repulsion is introduced, which has experimental evidence due to the formation of dipoles when these molecules are chemisorbed on the surface. The system is investigated by applying two approaches of NO dissociation. In the first ca.se, NO always decomposes into N and O before adsorption on the surface, In the second case, NO adsorbs on the surface molecularly and then dissociates into N and O if a vacancy is present in its adjacent neighbourhood. The steady state reactive window （i.e. the continuous production of CO2 and N2） is obtained only with the diffusion of N-atoms on the surface, which extends with CO-CO repulsion in the first, case. Itowever, in the second case, reactive window is obtained with CO-CO repulsion alone, The reactive window width in this case is reasonably large. The first-order phase transition is eliminated in both the cases with CO-CO repulsion.     

Basic properties of an rf SQUID involving two Josephson junctions connected in series

We have studied the basic characteristics of a radio frequency superconducting quantum interference device (rf SQUID) involving two Josephson junctions connected in series, the case for the widely used grain boundary junction (GBJ) rf SQUID. It is found that the SQUID properties are determined mainly by the weaker junction when the critical current of the weaker junction is much lower than that of the other junction. Otherwise, the effect of the other junction is not negligible. We also find that only when the hysteresis parameter β is less than 1-α, where α is the critical current ratio of the two junctions, will the SQUID operate in the nonhysteretic mode.     

Self—Trapping State and Atomic Tunnelling Current of an Atomic Bose—Einstein Condensate Interacting with a Laser Field in a Double—Well Potential

We present a theoretical treatment of dynamics of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensation interacting with a single-mode quantized travelling-wave laser field in a double-well potential.When the atom-field system is initially in a coherent state,expressions for the energy exchange between atoms and photons are derived.It is revealed that atoms in the two wells can be in a self-trapping state when the tunnelling frequency satisfies two specific conditions,in which the resonant and far off-resonant cases are included.It is found that there is an alternating current with two different sinusoidal oscillations between the two wells,but no dc characteristic of the atomic tunnelling current occurs.It should be emphasized that when without the laser field,both the population difference and the atomic tunnelling current are only a single oscillation.But they will respectively become a superposition of two oscillations with different oscillatory frequencies in the presence of the laser field.For the two oscillations of the population difference,one always has an increment in the oscillatory frequency,the other can have an increment or a decrease under different cases.These conclusions are also suitable to those of the atomic tunnelling current.As a possible application,by measurement of the atomic tunnelling current between the two wells,the number of Bose-condensed atoms can be evaluated.By poperly selecting the laser field,the expected atomic tunnelling current can be obtained too.     

Current noises in a topological Josephson junction

We study the transport properties of a superconductor-quantum spin Hall insulator-superconductor Josephson junction both in the absence and in the presence of a DC bias voltage. As the system is predicted to host Majorana fermions at its interfaces,the Andreev bond states are supposed to exhibit a distinct 4π periodicity in the superconducting phase difference, namely the fractional Josephson effect. Using the non-equilibrium Green's function method, we calculate the current and the related current noise based on a tight-binding Hamiltonian. Our direct results show that the fractional Josephson effect can not be seen in equilibrium junctions. While in non-equilibrium junctions, this effect can be confirmed by the multiple Andreev reflections induced peaks of the non-equilibrium noise, which appear at discrete frequencies ω = ne V with n being an integer number.     

Quadruple-stacked Nb/Nb_xSi_(1-x)/Nb Josephson junctions for large-scale array application

Large-scale Josephson junction(JJ) arrays are essential in many applications, especially quantum voltage standards application for which hundreds of thousands of junctions are required to realize a high quantum voltage. For almost all applications, high-quality JJ arrays must be realized in a small chip area. This study proposes vertically quadruplestacked Nb/Nb_xSi_(1-x) JJs to increase the integration density of junctions in an array. The current–voltage(I–V)characteristics of a single stack of Nb/Nb_xSi_(1-x) JJs have been measured at 4.2 K. The uniformity of junctions in one stack and the uniformity of several stacks over the entire 2 inches wafer have been analyzed. By optimizing the fabrication parameters, a large-scale quadruple-stacked Nb/Nb_xSi_(1-x) array consisting of 400000 junctions is realized. Good DC I–V characteristics are obtained, indicating the good uniformity of the large-scale array.     

Anomalous Direct-Current Josephson Effect in Semiconductor Nanowire Junctions

We investigate the dc Josephson effect in one-dimensional junctions where a ring conductor is sandwiched between two semiconductor nanowires with proximity-induced superconductivity.Peculiar features of the Josephson effect arise due to the interplay of spin-orbit interaction and external Zeeman field.By tuning the Zeeman field orientation,the device can vary from 0 to π junction.More importantly,nonzero Josephson current is possible at zero phase difference across the junction.Although this anomalous Josephson current is not relevant to the topological phase transition,its magnitude can be significantly enhanced when the nanowires become topological superconductors where Majorana bound states emerge.Distinct modulation patterns are obtained for the semiconductor nanowires in the topologically trivial and non-trivial phases.These results are useful to probe the topological phase transition in semiconductor nanowire junctions via the dc Josephson effect.