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This work demonstrates superconducting tunnel junctions with high barrier transparency using plasma nitridation, indicating superior performance characteristics.
We report a Nb/Al-AlN/Nb superconducting tunnel junction process in which the AlN barrier is formed by plasma nitridation using a compact microwave electron-cyclotron-resonance (ECR) nitrogen plasma source integrated into a standard sputter cluster. This enables growth of uniform tunnel barriers across a broad range of specific resistances, with R n A down to ≃ 3 Ω·µm 2 . Junctions maintain excellent quality, exhibiting R j /R n ≥ 25 at the highest barrier transparencies. We characterize resistivity, specific capacitance, and the evolution of junction parameters under room-temperature aging and thermal annealing. A consistent calibration of the junction specific capacitance C s versus R n A is established and independently validated by the performance of demonstrator SIS mixers designed using the extracted C s .
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Pavolotsky et al. (2025) studied this question.
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