Journal of Low Temperature Physics, Vol. 106, Nos. 3/4, 1997 Comparative Study of Shunted Bicrystal Josephson Junctions Alexander Klushin*, Alexander Golubovt, Werner Prusseit*, and Hermann Kohlstedt lnstitut fiir Schicht- und lonentechnik, Forschungszentrum Jfflich GmbH, 52425 .liilich, Germ.any * Permanent addres.s: Institute of s Mea.sarements "h'VARZ", 603009 Nizhnii Novgorod, Russia t ['ermaueTtt address: ln.stitutc of Solid State Physics, i42~32 (3er'nogolot~ka, t~II,SSI(I " Phymkalische Fakultiit der Techni.schen. Uni'ver.sitiit Mu'nchen, 85747 (;arching, Germany In order 5, optimize tit,,: series array performance of }'" t]a~C ~t:~07 .... (YI3CO) grai~z boandary shunted junctions, a method to deterntine and control th~ junction resistance R~ and Au/YBCO contact resistivity p(. has been, devel- oped. 200 nm thick c-oriented YBCO films were grown by intermittent th,er- real coevaporation on bicrystal yttria-stabilized zirconia substrates. A gold contact overlayer of thickness d,~ was deposited in situ. Normal j'wr~,ction resistances have been measured as a function of d~ and shunt width, w. It was shown that, in accordance with theoretical estimates, the junction shunt resistance is essentially controlled by the c-axis Aa/YBCO interface .specific resistance and scale.s as R~ Z #~,,_o~ The product pcp~ "~ 3 9 10 -14 ft~cm :3 I1) V dn " was estimated from the experimental data, leading to p~ ~ 10 -s f~crn, 2 for typical values of Pn for gold thin films. PACS nurabers: 74.50.+r, 74.76.Bz, 85.25. Cp, 85.25.Jw. 1. INTRODUCTION We report on recent and ongoing work investigating series ~rrays of non- hysteretic high-To Josephson junctions for potential applications as voltage 265 0022-2291/97/0200-0265512.50/0 9 1997 Plenum Publishing Corporation