Experimental evidence for Coulomb charging effects in submicron Bi-2212 stacks

Focused ion beam (FIB) and ion milling techniques are developed for the fabrication of Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_8+1d (Bi-2212) stacked junctions with in-plane size L ab ranging from several microns down to the submicron scale without degradation of superconducting transition temperature T_c. It is found that the behavior of submicron junctions (L_ab<1 µm) is quite different from that of larger ones. The critical current density is considerably suppressed, the hysteresis and multibranched structure of the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics are eliminated, and a periodic structure of current peaks appears reproducibly on the I-V curves at low temperatures. The period ΔV of the structure is consistent with the Coulomb charging energy of a single pair, ΔV=e/C, where C is the effective capacitance of the stack. It is considered that this behavior originates from the Coulomb blockade of the intrinsic Josephson tunneling in submicron Bi-2212 stacks.