Au/Ti resistors used for Nb/Pb-alloy Josephson junctions. I. Electrical stability

Abstract

Bilayered Au/Ti films are very attractive for use as resistor materials of experimental Nb/Pb-alloy Josephson junction devices. In order to predict the electrical stability of the Au/Ti resistors during storage at room temperature, changes in microstructure and electrical resistivity of Ti and Au/Ti films during isothermal annealing at temperatures ranging from 298-473 K were studied using transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and electrical measurements. Growth of Ti grains during annealing was observed in these films. The activation energy for the grain growth was determined to be 1.51 eV. Decreases in the sheet resistance measured at 4.2 K were observed at the early stages of isothermal annealing. By analyzing the annealing temperature dependence of rates of resistance changes, the activation energy of 1.49 eV was obtained. This energy value is very close to that obtained for the grain growth and, therefore, one of the main causes in the resistance decrease is believed to be due to the growth of Ti grains. Based on the present results, a model to predict the electrical resistance change for the Au/Ti films during storage at room temperature was established. The model predicted that change in the resistance can be significantly reduced by preannealing the resistors at an elevated temperature. The prediction was supported by the experiment and an excellent quantitative agreement between measured resistance values and those predicted by the model was obtained. Based on this model, the change was predicted to be -1.5% after about 3 years at room temperature, if the resistors were preannealed at 353 K for 10 h. This resistor stability is satisfactory for designing logic and memory circuits of Josephson devices, and it can be increased simply by preannealing for longer times at 353 K.