Eur. Phys. J. B 48, 359-365 (2005)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2005-00413-y

Intrinsic pinning and current percolation signatures in E-J characteristics of Si/YSZ/CeO₂/YBCO layouts

¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Torino, c. Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
² Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Cibernetica “E. Caianiello”, via Campi Flegrei 34, 80078 Pozzuoli (Na), Italy
³ Enea-Frascati, via Enrico Fermi, 45, 00044 - Frascati, Roma, Italy
⁴ INFM - Laboratorio MDM, via Olivetti 2, 20041 Agrate Brianza (Mi), Italy

Corresponding author: ^a enrica.mezzetti@polito.it

Received: 22 July 2005
Revised: 26 October 2005
Published online: 23 December 2005

Abstract

In the context of superconducting electronics integrated with traditional silicon-based electronics we grew Si/YSZ/CeO₂/YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x architectures by means of the scalable magnetron sputtering growth technique. In this paper we report on structural, surface and electrical transport characterization of typical multilayers. We focus on the electrical transport characterization in the temperature range 18–30 K of c-axis YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x films grown on top of several (001) oriented buffered substrates. The electric field vs. current density (E-J) curves exhibit step-like behaviour in correspondence to the transition between the non-dissipative and the flux-flow regimes. This trend is accompanied by the signature of linearly correlated pinning. On the other hand, in the flux-flow regime clear signatures of weak-link behaviour and current percolation are exhibited. In this complex framework possible future applications are discussed.