The high performance method for analyzing the time evolution of the shielding current density in the high Tc superconductor (HTS) has been investigated. After discretized by using the finite element method and the backward Euler method, the initial-boundary-value problem of the governing equations of the shielding current density is transformed to the problem in which the nonlinear algebraic equations are solved at each time step. When the deaccelerated Newton method (DNM) is applied to the solution of the equations, a decrease in the relaxation factor will not always ensure the convergence of iterations. For this reason, the DNM is modified so that the residual norm may decrease monotonously with the iteration number. The modified method is called the adaptively deaccelerated Newton method (ADNM). Although the vector function is evaluated several times at each cycle in the ADNM, the CPU time required for the ADNM is diminished considerably as compared with that for the DNM. This result indicates that the ADNM is suitable for calculating the shielding current density. The numerical code for analyzing the shielding current density has been developed on the basis of the ADNM and, as an application of the code, the magnetic shielding performance of an axisymmetric HTS plate has been analyzed.

Recent progress of highly sensitive magnetmeter utilizing high Tc dc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) is reviewed briefly. Performance parameters of the SQUID magnetometer, such as field resolution, dynamic response and usability in unshielded environment, are focused on. Relationship between these performance parameters and SQUID characteristics are discussed quantitatively, and key factors which dominate each performance are clarified. With this result, design principle to obtain high performance SQUID magnetometer operating at T77K is shown. Present status on the performance of the magnetometer is discussed by comparing experimental results with theoretical predictions. Issues to much improve the performance of the high Tc SQUID magnetometer are also discussed.

New THz radiation devices made of high-Tc superconductors are fabricated and their characteristics are studied in detail. Ultrashort electromagnetic pulses with 0.5 ps width have been radiated into free space from current biased devices made of superconducting YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) films by exciting with femtosecond laser pulses. The Fourier spectrum of them extends up to 3 THz. The radiation mechanism is ascribed to the ultrafast supercurrent modulation by the optical pulses. The THz waveform is analyzed using rate equations describing the relaxation of photoexcited quasiparticles. By the improvement of the device structure and the collecting optics, the radiation power can be increased up to 0.5 µW. A new type THz radiation from YBCO films under an external magnetic field without a transport current is also reported.

We report the strong microwave Josephson radiation from an array of high-Tc junctions on a MgO bicrystal substrate from centimeter- to millimeter-wave ranges. The dc bias current was fed to the junction array having parallel geometry with the pair of junctions shunted by superconducting loops. The configuration of bias leads was a series of interlocking dc SQUID's geometry which guaranteed the oscillation of all junctions at the same frequency. For a five-junctions array, we observed the coherent output power of about 13 pW at receiving frequency fREC22GHz without an external magnetic flux, which was nearly five times higher than that of a single bicrystal junction. We observed the Josephson linewidth of the selfradiation in coherent state less than 1 GHz by the adjustment of the external flux. The phase differences between adjacent junctions with different IcRn products could be controlled by an external small magnetic field. Submillimeter-wave detector response of the five-junction array was also studied experimentally at frequency f478 GHz.

The 4th harmonics of a Nd:YAG laser beam (266 nm) is applied to fabricate highly oriented Y1Ba2Cu3O7-δ -SrTiO3-Y1Ba2Cu3O7-δ multilayer structures. It has been shown that the emission temperature of a film surface will change during deposition, depending on deposition conditions, even though the heater temperature is constant. The change of substrate temperature is strongly correlated to film characteristics such as critical temperature, c-axis length, and resistivity. The insitu monitoring of the substrate temperature is useful for obtaining high-quality Y1Ba2Cu3O7-δ films reproducibly. It is also shown that a SrTiO3 layer prevents oxygen restoration in a Y1Ba2Cu3O7-δ underlayer. The relationship between oxygen deficiency and the annealing conditions is studied.

The paper discusses properties of YBaCuO thick films produced by screen printing method and followed sintering of a paste made from pre-annealed powder on Yttrium Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) and MgO substrates. The prepared films have been studied by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and resistance vs. temperature measurements.

A multi-channel high temperature superconducting interference device (high Tc SQUID) system with high magnetic field resolution has been developed. Step edge junctions were employed as weakly coupled Josephson junctions for the SQUID. These junctions worked well and their I-V curves fit the resistively shunted junction (RSJ) model. The SQUID design was investigated to improve magnetic field resolution. The size of the SQUID's center hole was investigated, and we found the optimized size of the hole to be about 25 µm. Meissner effect of superconductor was used in order to concentrate magnetic fluxes. A large washer SQUID and a flux concentrating plate was developed to concentrate magnetic flux to the SQUID center hole. The magnetic field resolution became 370 fT/Hz at 10 Hz and 220 fT/Hz at 10 kHz. This field resolution was enough to detect biomagnetic signals such as magnetocardiac signals. The SQUID was mounted on a special chip carrier and was sealed with epoxy resin for protection from humidity. We have designed and developed a 4-channel and a 16-channel high Tc SQUID system. We used them in a magnetically shielded room to measure magnetic signals of the human heart. We obtained clear multi-channel magnetocardiac signals, which showed clear so called QRS and T wave peaks. A clear isofield contour map of magnetocardiac signals was also obtained. These data indicated that high Tc SQUID is feasible for these biomagnetic applications.

Step-edge Josephson junctions (SEJJs), which are made by YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) thin films on MgO (100) substrates with gentle step angle (below 40 degrees) have been successfully fabricated. The step-edge, with several angles on the MgO substrate, were made using photolithography and Ar ion beam etching, and then YBCO films were deposited on the step-edges by pulsed laser deposition method. The relationships between step-angles and I-V characteristics, microwave properties and structure of SEJJs were systematically investigated. Shapiro steps were clearly observed only in step-angle range between 10 and 30 degrees. Intermittence and hysteresis on the I-V characteristics were observed above 30 mA without effect from step-angles.

This paper describes a new method for joining BiSrCaCuO superconductors (BSCCO) which realizes low microwave loss and high mechanical strength. This method consists of two processes. In the first the BSCCO surface is metallized with Ag and in the second a joint is formed by using thermally curable Ag paste. With this method, we obtained a joint with a loss of 0.3 dB around 1.1 GHz with the co-axial cavity techniques. Furthermore, the mechanical strength of the joint was greater than that of the BSCCO sample. From the results of DC resistance measurements and SEM observations, we attribute this good performance to the adhesion and continuity of the metallized Ag with the BSCCO surface.

A YBCO/CeO2/Au MIS structure (YBCO:YBa2Cu3O7y) is fabricated on a MgO(100) substrate with the help of the all-in-situ electron-beam and heater coevaperation system. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the deposited YBCO film under various gate voltages are examined. Small modulation of the I-V characteristics by gate voltages can be observed. Meanwhile, the surface morphology is also studied by means of an atomic force microscope (AFM). The relation between the field effect and the surface morphology of a thin YBCO film is discussed.

Bi2Sr2Ca1Cu2Ox thick film superconducting shields have been fabricated for use with HTc SQUIDs. Shielding factors and internal noise levels of the shields were measured using a DC SQUID magnetometer. A sample in which BSCCO was coated on the outside of a cylindrical Ag substrate exhibited larger noise levels than that with a sample in which BSCCO was coated on the inside of the Ag cylinder. The difference is explained by the thermally driven (Johnson) noise from the Ag substrate. A sample with the Ag cylinder outside the superconductor and samples with MgO substrates inside the superconductor showed good performance with a shielding factors of 10-8 and internal noise levels which did not exceed the DC SQUID magnetometer resolution (5 fTrms/Hz) at 4.2 K. In addition, the flux relaxation noise of BSCCO superconducting shields was estimated from the relaxation behavior of BSCCO.

The barrier-layer was successfully fabricated for a preparation of tunneling junction using high Tc oxidesuperconductor such as Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O system. Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox films were used for both superconducting electrodes and the barrier was mainly Bi2Sr2CaCu2O and the rest that was formed by effects of de-calcium from the first sputtered (2223) film. The reaction of de-calcium occurred immersing it in carbonated water. The change of (2223) phase of BSCCO was confirmed with a comparison of the intensity of X-ray diffraction. The superconductive transition temperature of the junction is different from that of the single film (2223) which had no treatment with carbonated water. Zero-bias-currents through fabricated barrier are observed and the critical currents depend on temperature so far as measured temperature region of 79 K-72 K.

We have fabricated superconducting microwave passive components such as resonators, bandpass filters and delay lines with YBCO thin film conductors deposited on MgO substrates. Considerably high unloaded Q values of 12000 at 5.5 GHz was obtained with the YBCO microstrip resonator at 77 K, which indicated that the surface resistance of the YBCO thin film was 0.79 mΩ at that frequency and temperature. Excellent microwave properties were also demonstrated with the bandpass filter and the delay line. Considerably low insertion loss of about 1 dB was obtained with the 10 GHz YBCO bandpass filters at 77 K which have a various bandwidth from 0.5% to 10%. Also excellent microwave propagation was obtained with a 1.3 nsec YBCO coplanar delay line. Its insertion loss was less than 1 dB for the frequencies up to 4 GHz.