Heterodyne microwave mixing in a superconducting YBa₂Cu₃O₇_-_x coplanar wave-guide circuit containing a single engineered grain-boundary junction

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20002229

The purpose of this work was to utilize the nonlinear current-voltage properties of induced grain boundaries in high temperature superconducting YBa₂Cu₃O₇_-_x thin films to fabricate a planar microwave mixer. The experiment involved constructing a coplanar waveguide microwave circuit, the center conductor of which had a constriction patterned in it containing a single high angle grain boundary, thus forming a weak link junction. Analysis was provided by use of the resistively shunted junction model with excess current.