YBa2Cu3O7-δ Single Flux Quantum Flip Flop Directly Written With a Focused Helium Ion Beam

Superconducting logic circuits based on low transition temperature (T-c) are attractive due to their intrinsic low power consumption and high operating frequency. They have a wide variety of applications (particularly in future computing), but are difficult to use because they require cooling with liquid helium to operate. The current high T-c logic circuit based on YBa2Cu3O7-delta (YBCO) already has the ability to operate at a temperature above 4 K. However, this material is difficult to integrate into large-scale circuits by the traditional YBCO junction fabrication process. The limits of fabrication methods are the bottleneck stifling this material's potential for integration into logic circuits. As such, in this paper we aim to advance the state of the art in junction fabrication technology. Here we report the demonstration of a high T-c superconducting single flux quantum (SFQ) circuit made by a focused helium ion beam that is easily fabricated and can readily be incorporated into a large-scale integration with nano-scale junctions for future applications. An inductively coupled readout superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) is employed to reduce the circuit complexity. The circuit parameters and performance are discussed.