Intrinsic Josephson junctions in oxygen-deficient YBa2Cu3O7−δ film deposited on a substrate step

Using c-axis-oriented oxygen-deficient YBa2Cu3O7−δ film deposited across a low-angle step on a SrTiO3 substrate, we successfully demonstrated intrinsic Josephson effects. In addition to several voltage jumps of large amplitudes (a few millivolts) and remarkable hysteresis on the dc current–voltage curves, we observed upturns on the current–voltage curves under microwave irradiation which appeared at increasingly high voltages with increasing microwave power. We proposed to explain this observation in terms of high-order microwave-induced Shapiro steps.