Electric properties of Y-Ba-Cu-O micro-diodes based on asymmetrically narrowed mesas

Abstract

We present our studies of electric properties of micro-diodes based on asymmetrically narrowed, partially oxygen-depleted, semiconducting YBa2Cu3O7-x thin-film mesas. A level of asymmetry of nonlinear current-voltage characteristics of our diodes increases with the decrease of the residual oxygen content in their neck region and with increasing the operating temperature. The largest asymmetry is observed for diodes with x ~ 0.5 and at T = 300 K. An asymmetric distribution of the electric potential for different bias polarities initiate an asymmetric, non-uniform distribution of intrinsic electric field due to heating of carriers in the diode. The experimental results and possible diode’s technology are discussed.