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Categories: advanced materials, energy

BSA 08-04: High Temperature Interfacial Superconductivity

BNL Reference Number: BSA 08-04

Patent Status: U.S. Patent Number 8,204,564 was issued on June 19, 2012

Summary

(a) Annular dark field image of the structure showing extended defects in the metal layer (marked by white arrows). The black arrow shows the metal-insulator interface (b) A magnified image of one defect which nucleated at the cuprate-substrate interface and is due to local variations in the termination layer of the substrate.

Cuprate superconductors exhibit relatively high transition temperatures, but their unit cells are complex and large. Localizing a superconducting layer to a small thickness is difficult with bulk cuprates due to the challenges of growing layers with precise thicknesses. The inventive structures can be used to make superconducting field effect transistors (SuFETs), using the interfacial superconducting layer as the channel.

Description

Superconducting structures displaying stable interface superconductivity at relatively high temperatures, 15K to 50K have been developed. The effect is observed between two components even when neither is, itself, superconducting. Superconducting properties in these structures, such as the transition temperature, can be altered by a number of methods, including: altering the composition of one or both components; changing the thickness of one or more layers of the structure; changing the number and identity of layers in the structure; and locating a layer of one conducting type nearer or farther from a substrate.

Journal Publication

• High-temperature interface superconductivity between metallic and insulating copper oxides (.pdf)

Have Questions?

For more information about this technology, contact Kimberley Elcess, (631) 344-4151.