SUPERCONDUCTING OXIDE MULTILAYERS AND SUPERLATTICES - PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, AND NANOENGINEERING

A technique has been developed for synthesis of heterostructures containing various Bi- and Dy-based cuprates and other complex oxides, with a high level of control of deposition of individual atomic monolayers as well as capability for atomic-layer engineering. It produces multilayers and superlattices which display striking long-range crystalline order and atomically abrupt interfaces; this enables deposition of one-unit-cell thick 2212 layers which display HTSC, and of barriers less than 1 nm thick with no pinholes over macroscopic areas. Employing Dy-doped 1278 barriers, trilayer Josephson junctions with I(c)R(n) = 5-7 mV have been fabricated. Phase locking is seen in stacked junctions. Tunneling transport (but no supercurrent) is observed in junctions with insulating titanate barriers. Modulation doping is attained by omitting or inserting entire monolayers, and artificial metastable high-T-c compounds have been synthesized in this way. Finally, long-range proximity effects are seen in 2212-2201-2212 trilayers.