Method of making improved tunnel barriers for superconducting Josephson junction devices

摘要

During the manufacture of Josephson superconducting devices, it is necessary to provide on a substrate a base electrode, a counter electrode and a small tunnel barrier area therebetween. A novel method of making all three of these active elements in the same vacuum chamber without having to remove the substrate from the vacuum chamber is provided so that the tunnel barrier area is accurately made to a predetermined size and without the danger of contamination. The novel structure is made as a substantially planarized laminate in the vacuum chamber and the tunnel barrier area is defined in a supplemental step.