Porous Silicon Templates for Superconducting Devices

Abstract

The use of porous silicon (PS) templates in the field of superconducting nanoelectronics is reviewed. We focus on the influence of the morphology of the pores (porosity, average pore diameter) on the superconducting properties of ultrathin films deposited on these templates. We describe and discuss some basic and advanced properties of the obtained nanostructured superconductors. In particular, we show that, due to the extremely reduced dimensions of PS templates, the formation of commensurate vortex structures can be realized at low temperatures and at matching fields as high as μ0H1  1 T. We also show that with this fabrication procedure, we can obtain networks of one-dimensional superconducting nanowires, which exhibit features typical of quantum phase slip (QPS) phenomena. This creates preconditions for the development and implementation of new highly sensitive radiation detectors, magnetometers, QPS qubits, QPS transistors, and quantum current standards.