MONOLITHIC Y-BA-CU-O STRUCTURES FABRICATED USING THE LASER-WRITING PATTERNING TECHNIQUE

Abstract. We report our progress in fabrication of thin-film YBa2Cu3Ox (YBCO) superconducting electronic devices, using a recently developed , laser-writing patterning technique. Laser writing allows one to form in the same YBCO film planar patterns that consist of both the oxygen -rich (superconducting) and the oxygen-poor (semiconducting) phases. T he patterns are highly uniform with very sharp (less than 1 mum wide) superconductor-semiconductor interfaces. The oxygen-rich regions posse ss excellent superconducting properties with critical temperatures as high as those of the best epitaxial films, and critical current densit ies above 2 x 10(6) cm-2 at 77 K. Simultaneously, the oxygen-poor regi ons exhibit a disordered-semiconductor-like, thermally activated trans port. Below 100 K, they are almost insulating and characterized by rel atively low (below 20) dielectric constant and low microwave loss. A n umber of test structures, consisting of oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor mi crobridges and coplanar microwave transmission lines and resonators, w as fabricated and tested. All these devices are completely monolithic and were used to study DC and microwave transport properties of the ox ygen-rich and oxygen-poor YBCO phases.