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High quality a-Si/Nb and a-SiN/NbN artificial multilayers for Josephson applications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

J. Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3112
E.D. Rippert
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3112
S.N. Song*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3112
M.P. Ulmer
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3112
J.B. Ketterson
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3112
*
a)Author to whom all correspondence should be directed.
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Abstract

A high resolution transmission electron microscopy study of multilayer films prepared by magnetron sputtering shows that the morphology of the growing interface in a-Si/Nb and a-SiN/NbN multilayers is remarkably uniform and smooth; this is in contrast to the polycrystalline AlN/NbN multilayers grown under similar conditions, which exhibit columnar grain structure with rough interfaces. For proper sputtering parameters, the amorphous layers seem to periodically restore a relatively smooth initial interface condition for the successive Nb (or NbN) layer growth, consequently interrupting the tendency toward increased roughness due to mechanisms such as columnar growth. Artificial multilayers having very flat interfaces could stimulate applications based on multilayer Josephson junctions.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1994

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References

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