Superconducting Tunneling and Tunneling Applications in High Tc A15 Superconductors

摘要

This program was an outgrowth of our early empirical successes in forming superconducting tunnel junctions on thin films of the high transition temperature superconductors, specifically those in the so-called A15 class such as Nb3Sn (T(c) approx. 18 K) and V3Si (T(c) approx. 16 K). Prior to this all attempts at tunneling in the A15 superconductors had been on bulk material and were not widely successful. Moreover such non-thin film junctions are of limited device interest. As a result of this program we now have general junction formation techniques, apparently suitable for the A15 superconductors as a class, which are being routinely used for material diagnostics and for studies of the superconducting properties of these materials. More importantly, perhaps, they appear to have important device potential. We summarized only the main results and conclusions, referring the reader to the appendix for a more comprehensive discussion.