Abstract
We use electromigration (EM) to tune the oxygen content of YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-\delta}$ (YBCO) nanowi\-res. During EM, the dopant oxygen atoms in the nanowire are moved under the combined effect of electrostatic force and Joule heating. The EM current can be tuned to either deplete or replenish nanowires with oxygen, allowing fine tuning of its hole doping level. Electrical transport measurements and Kelvin probe microscopy corroborate good homogeneity of the doping level along the electromigrated nanowires. Thus, EM provides an effective method to study transport properties of YBCO in a wide doping range at the nanoscale in one and the same device.
Highlights
The discovery of copper oxide-based high-criticaltemperature superconductors (HTSs), more than 30 years ago, ranks among the major scientific events in solidstate physics and has given a tremendous boost to the field of superconductivity
The quality of the pristine YBCO nanowires is vital since defects are affected by the electromigration process and may worsen the quality of the nanowire with each EM step
We find a good agreement between our phase diagram and the one reported in the literature for bulk crystals [45], confirming that EM can be used for tuning ex situ the doping of individual YBCO nanowires while preserving electrical properties close to those of pristine thin films and single crystals
Summary
The discovery of copper oxide-based high-criticaltemperature superconductors (HTSs), more than 30 years ago, ranks among the major scientific events in solidstate physics and has given a tremendous boost to the field of superconductivity. Nanowires with different doping levels are obtained by nanopatterning of thin films having the corresponding doping level, i.e., oxygen content, in the case of YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) [23,27] Such a fabrication process is very challenging, especially for lower doping levels, and requires a separate YBCO film for each doping level [27]. This approach makes the comparison between transport properties of nanowires of different doping levels difficult since properties such as critical current sensitively depend on wire morphology on the nanoscale [28], which will unavoidably vary between devices. The effectiveness of gating is tied to the thickness of the material and limits its application to ultrathin films [32]
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