Effects of oxygen content on YBCO Josephson junction structures

The high degree of crystal stress and strain present at, and in the vicinity of, high angle grain boundary (GBJ), ramp edge Co doped SNS (Co-SNS), or interface engineered junctions (IEJ) can lead to localized and highly non-uniform regions of basal plane oxygen loss in YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-/spl delta// (YBCO). These oxygen inhomogeneities will, to a greater or lesser degree, affect or cause the superconducting weak link behaviour demonstrated by these types of junctions. In order to examine the impact of the localized oxygen micro/nanostructure on the weak link behaviour of these three junction technologies, we have utilized ozone anneals to provide a partial pressure of atomic oxygen far in excess of that produced by standard O/sub 2/ anneals.