LOW TEMPERATURE PROCESSING OF HIGH TC SUPERCONDUCTOR FILMS FOR INTEGRATION OF DETECTOR ARRAYS WITH SILICON CIRCUITRY

THE DISCOVERY OF SUPERCONDUCTORS WITH TRANSITION TEMPERATURES ABOVE LIQUID NITROGEN TEMPERATURE HAS LED TO RENEWED INTEREST IN THE APPLICATION OF SUPERCONDUCTIVITY. THESE NEW MATERIALS CAN POTENTIALLY BE USED AS DETECTORS MORE CONVENIENTLY THAN CAN "CLASSICAL" SUPERCONDUCTORS. THE LARGER ENERGY GAP OF THESE NEW HIGH CRITICAL TEMPERATURE(TC) MATERIALS ALSO PROVIDES THE OPPORTUNITY TO FABRICATE JOSEPHSON JUNCTION (JJ) DETECTORS CAPABLE OF SENSING OPTICALRADIATION AT MUCH LOWER WAVELENGTHS, OFFERING NEW COMPETITION TO SEMICONDUCTOR INFRARED (IR) DETECTORS IN THE 10 TO 100 UM REGION. PHASE I AND PHASE II WILL DEVELOP IR DETECTOR ARRAYS BASED ON GRANULAR HIGH TC SUPERCONDUCTING THIN FILMS THAT CAN BE DEPOSITED ON AND INTEGRATED WITH SILICON INTEGRATED CIRCUITS. THIS OBJECTIVE RELIES ON CURRENT PROGRESS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF GRANULAR HIGH TC DISCRETE DETECTORS, THE CAPABILITIES OF THE LASER ABLATION PROCESS FOR INTEGRATION ON SILICON, AND THE DEMONSTRATED CAPABILITY OF FOURIER TRANSFORM INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY AS AN IN- SITU DIAGNOSTIC FOR MONITORING THE DEPOSITION AND ANNEALING OF THE PEROVSKITE FILMS. THE PHASE I APPROACH WILL USE THIN FILMS OF YBACUO OR BICASRCUO MATERIALS TO DEMONSTRATE THE LOW DEPOSITION TEMPERATURE AND INTERFACIAL THIN FILM MATERIAL REQUIRED FOR ACHIEVING HIGH TC LASER ABLATED THIN FILMS. PHASE II WILL FURTHER DEVELOP THE DEPOSITION PROCESS AND ASSESS THE PERFORMANCE OF THE DETECTOR ARRAYS. SILICON SUBSTRATES WITH DIAGNOSTIC CIRCUITS WILL BE USED TO ASSESS CIRCUIT OPERATION BEFORE ANDAFTER DETECTOR PROCESSING.