Abstract
High-temperature superconducting YBa2Cu3O7- microbridges and step-edge junctions (SEJs) were coated with SiO2 thin film by an rf magnetron sputtering technique. The effect of the coating on critical temperature Tc and critical current Ic was studied. It was found that Tc and Ic of microbridges increased as a result of the coating, by up to 3 K for Tc and up to 23% for Ic. We believe that this is due to the oxygen in the plasma penetrating into YBa2Cu3O7- resulting in an increase in oxygen content and restoration of the degraded microbridge edges. Ic of the SEJ, however, was found to decrease by 20-30% after deposition of SiO2 films despite no degradation in Tc. The results of ageing tests showed that SiO2 film forms a good passivation layer, protecting YBa2Cu3O7- film from reacting with water.
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