Area dependence and influence of crystal inhomogeneity on superconducting properties of Bi2212 mesa structures

Abstract

The rapid increase in applications of terahertz waves requires new techniques to obtain continuous wave terahertz sources. Mesa structures fabricated from high-Tc superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (Bi2212) single crystal have been observed as an intense, coherent, continuous electromagnetic wave source in the terahertz (THz) frequency region. However, in order to produce coherent radiation with high applicable power, we need large mesa structures that enter a collective electromagnetic state in which their oscillations are largely synchronized in phase. On the other hand, large mesa structures cause a heating problem. In this study, we report on the critical current density dependence of mesa area and the crystal inhomogeneity to understand heating problems in large area mesas for terahertz radiation. Since the doping dependence of Bi2212 is an important parameter, the as-grown Bi2212 crystals were heat-treated at various temperatures under vacuum conditions. We have fabricated triple mesa structures from Bi2212 single crystal using e-beam lithography and argon ion beam etching techniques with same area and with different area on the same chip. We investigated and compared characteristics of triple mesas which are on the same chip and next to each other. In this way, we searched the crystal inhomogeneity in triple mesa structures and studied the critical current density dependence of mesa area to obtain high emission power for the THz radiation. Our experimental results clearly show that the Josephson critical current density is decreasing when the area of mesa is increasing.