Silicided nanowires for nanobridge weak links

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9559284-B2
Application number	US-201514659749-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 17, 2015
Priority date	Mar 17, 2015
Publication date	Jan 31, 2017
Grant date	Jan 31, 2017

Abstract

Silicided nanowires as nanobridges in Josephson junctions. A superconducting silicided nanowire is used as a weak-link bridge in a Josephson junction, and a fabrication process is employed to produce silicided nanowires that includes patterning two junction banks and a rough nanowire from a silicon substrate, reshaping the nanowire through hydrogen annealing, and siliciding the nanowire by introduction of a metal into the nanowire structure.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for forming a superconducting weak-link junction, the method comprising:
patterning a first junction bank, a second junction bank, and a rough nanowire from a silicon substrate;
reshaping the nanowire through hydrogen annealing; and
siliciding the nanowire by introduction of a metal into the nanowire,
wherein the nanowire is at least one of shaped, sized, structured, located or connected to form a weak-link bridge between the first junction bank and the second junction bank.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the silicidation results in a single domain of a single-crystal silicide throughout the extent of the nanowire.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the metal is one of: cobalt, nickel, niobium, palladium, platinum, or tungsten.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the silicidation results in formation of a nickel silicide throughout the extent of the nanowire having a one-to-one stoichiometric relationship between nickel and silicon and a chemical formula NiSi.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the metal is applied through a lift-off deposition process.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the silicon substrate is located on top of a sapphire substrate.

7. A method for forming a superconducting weak-link junction, the method comprising:
patterning a first junction bank, a second junction bank, and a rough nanowire from a silicon substrate;
reshaping the nanowire through hydrogen annealing; and
siliciding the nanowire by diffusion of a metal through at least the first junction bank,
wherein the nanowire is at least one of shaped, sized, structured, located or connected to form a weak-link bridge between the first junction bank and the second junction bank.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein:
diffusion of the metal through the first junction bank results in silicidation of a first portion of the nanowire; and
the silicidation of the first portion of the nanowire produces a single domain of a single-crystal silicide in the first portion of the nanowire.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the silicidation results in a single domain of a single-crystal silicide throughout the extent of the nanowire.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the reshaping produces a nanowire having a cross-sectional diameter in the range of 3 nanometers to 200 nanometers.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the reshaping produces a nanowire having a line-edge roughness of less than 0.5 nanometers.

12. The method of claim 7 wherein the silicidation results in formation of a nickel silicide throughout the extent of the nanowire having a one-to-one stoichiometric relationship between nickel and silicon and a chemical formula NiSi.

Assignees

• Globalfoundries Inc

Inventors

• Chang Josephine B
• Chang Paul
• Cohen Guy M
• Guillorn Michael A

Classifications

• B81C1/00095 Primary

  Interconnects · CPC title

• B05D5/12

  to obtain a coating with specific electrical properties · CPC title

• H01L39/025 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L39/223

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L39/2493

  Electricity · mapped topic