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Superconducting qubit circuits require high quality low critical current density Josephson tunnel junctions. We have developed high quality epitaxial NbN/AlN/NbN tunnel junctions with critical current density, Jc, ranging from as low as a few A/cm^2 to a few tens of kA/cm^2. In this work, we measured current–voltage characteristics for junctions with a Jc\sim 32\ \rm A/cm^2 in the temperature range from 17 mK to above 6.7 K. All the junctions are in good quality and have a high gap voltage (>5.5 mV). We found that the junctions' sub-gap resistances were temperature dependent above 2.5 K and saturated at temperatures below 2.5 K. A junction sub-gap leakage current Ir of about 23 pA was measured. The voltage noise power spectral density for 3 junctions with different sizes has been measured at the base temperature of 17 mK with the junctions biased above the gap voltage. The spectral densities clearly show 1/f behavior at low frequency and are proportional to the junction's linear dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have studied electrical properties of YBCO/Y/sub 0.7/Ca/sub 0.3/Ba/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-x/ (Ca-YBCO)/YBCO trilayer junctions using c-axis oriented films. The Ca-YBCO films used here are the overdoped version of YBCO and show transition temperatures around 55 K. All of the junctions show RSJ-like current-voltage characteristics in a certain temperature range, though the range decreases with the Ca-YBCO interlayer thickness. For an applied magnetic field, the junctions show Fraunhofer pattern, indicating a Josephson coupling through the interlayers. The normal resistance of the junctions is proportional to the thickness of the interlayer, suggesting little interface resistance. The exponential dependence of the critical current on temperature and that on the interlayer thickness mean that the junctions behave as SNS junctions. These experimental results imply the proximity effect along c-axis in high temperature superconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]