Controlled Fabrication of Tunnel Barriers and Electron Tunneling into High Temperature Superconductors

量子力学隧穿研究对我们对传统超导体的理解产生了深远的影响。它也得到了实质性的应用。我们将开发在高T_c铋氧化物和氧化铜中制造可重复的隧道结所需的工艺。然后，我们将使用这些结来探索有关这些材料中是否存在能隙以及导致电子配对的机制的基本问题。此外，这些工艺还可用于制造约瑟夫森器件。

Quantum-mechanical tunneling research has had a profound impact upon our understanding of traditional superconductors. It has also found substantial application. We shall develop the processes necessary to fabricate reproducible tunnel junctions in the high-Tc bismuth oxides and copper oxide. We shall then use these junctions to explore basic questions regarding the existence of an energy gap in these materials and the mechanism responsible for the electron pairing. In addition, these processes can be used to fabricate Josephson devices.