Characteristics of Nb-based Josephson junctions at a temperature below 1 K

A lithographic technique for Josephson LSI (large scale integrated) circuits was applied to the production of a superconducting tunnel junction for radiation detection. Nb-Al/aluminum oxide/Nb tunnel junctions with different junction sizes and barrier oxidation times have been fabricated. The current-voltage curves were measured in the temperature range from 4.2 to 0.45 K. The junctions showed some amounts of leakage current, which remained below 2 K. The behavior of the leakage current was successfully understood from its experimental dependence on the junction size.<
>