We study the effects of phonon interaction on the superconducting pairing in the high $T_c$ superconductors (HTSC). Using coupled BCS gap equations, we found that phonon interaction can induce a s-wave component to the d-wave gap, mediated by Antiferromagnetic (AFM) spin fluctuations, in the (D+iS) form. However, $T_c$ is not enhanced compared to the pure d-wave pairing without phonon interaction. On the other hand, anisotropic phonon interaction can dramatically enhance the d-wave pairing and $T_c$ itself, together with the AFM spin fluctuation interaction. This ($D_{AFM}+D_{ph}$) type pairing exhibits strongly reduced isotope coefficient despite the large enhancement of $T_c$ by phonon interaction.

InAs semiconductor nanowires can provide a promising platform to integrate superconducting quantum circuit, which exploits tunable supercurrent under the operation of gate voltage. We report temperature and magnetic field dependence of the nanowire superconducting junctions, which is in agreement with the proximity-effect theory of superconductor-normal metal-superconductor weak link. Superconducting coherence length of the InAs nanowire is estimated from the fit and magnetic-field dependence of the critical current and the subgap structure of dI/dV is discussed as well.

We report on the Josephson vortex dynamics in $Bi_2Sr_2CaCuO_{8+\delta}$ natural Josephson junctions by c-axis tunneling measurements. Beside the quasiparticle branches in the current-voltage characteristics, a new set of multiple branches, referred to as Josephson-vortex-flow branches (JVFBs), are observed. The JVFBs emerge in an in-plane magnetic field above $H_0\;=\;{\Phi}_0/{\gamma}s^2$ and show highly hysteretic behavior, which can be explained in terms of the recently proposed dynamic-phase-separation model. In this work we examined the effect on the JVFBs by the presence of pancake vortices generated as the external magnetic field was applied slightly tilted from the in-plane direction. JVFBs were found to become larger and prominent with increasing pancake vortex density as the tilt angle increased, which were presumably caused by slowing down of a Josephson vortex lattice in the presence of pancake vortices.

Measurements of surface resistance ($R_s$) of high temperature superconductor (HTS) films with accuracy are essential for microwave applications of HTS materials. In using the dielectric resonator method, uncertainties in the unloaded quality factor of the resonator cause significant errors in the measured $R_s$ of HTS films. We compare the Rs values of $YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-{\delta}}$ films calculated from the $Q_0$ as determined from the Lorentzian fit with that from the $Q_0$ as determined from the S-parameter circle-fit at temperatures between 15 K and 77 K. The two sets of values appeared to differ by 5%, 7%, 6%, and 11% at temperatures of 15, 60, 70, and 77 K, respectively, from each other, implying that careful error analysis needs to be performed in obtaining the $R_s$ of HTS films by using the Lorentzian-fit method, with the ones determined from the S-parameter circle-fit used as the reference.

Detailed field and strain dependence of the critical current and the n-value for an internal-tin processed $Nb_3Sn$ strand have been measured. Both the compressive and tensile strain is applied reversibly using Walter spiral probe made of BeCu up to 0.73 %. There is a correlation between the critical current and the n-value for the $Nb_3Sn$ strand studied in this work and the field dependence of the n-value is in agreement with a recent empirical formula. It was further shown that the critical current can be reasonably well fitted by the scaling law based on strong-coupling theory of superconductivity using the relation between the critical current and the n-value.

Due to high speed operations and ultra low power consumptions RSFQ logic circuit is a very good candidate for future electronic device. The focus of the RSFQ circuit development has been on the advancement of analog-to-digital converters and microprocessors. Recent works on RSFQ ALU development showed the successful operation of an 1-bit block of ALU at 40 GHz. Recently, the study of an RSFQ analog-to-digital converter has been extended to the development of a single chip RF digital receiver. Compared to the voltage logic circuits, RSFQ circuits operate based on the pulse logic. This naturally leads the circuit structure of RSFQ circuit to be pipelined. Delay time on each pipelined stage determines the ultimate operating speed of the circuit. In simulations, a two junction Josephson transmission line's delay time was about 10 ps, a splitter's 14.5 ps, a switch's 13 ps, a half adder's 67 ps. Optimization of the 4-bit ALU circuit has been made with delay time consideration to operate comfortably at 10 GHz or above.

We are developing a sensitive gamma ray spectrometer based on superconducting transition edge sensors. The detector consists of a small piece of high purity Sn as an absorber and a Ti/Au bilayer as a temperature sensor. It is designed to measure the thermal signal caused by absorption of gamma rays. The mechanical support and the thermal contact between the absorber and the thermometer were made with Stycast epoxy. The bilayer was formed by e-beam evaporation and patterned by wet etching on top of a $SiN_X$ membrane. A sharp superconducting transition of the film was measured near 100 mK. When the film was biased to the edge of the transition, signals were observed due to single photon absorption emitted from an $^{241}Am$ source. The measured spectrum showed several characteristic peaks of the source including 59.5 keV gamma line. The full with at half maximum was about 900 eV for the 59.5 keV gamma line. The background was low enough to resolve low energy lines. Considerations to improve the energy resolution of the gamma ray spectrometer are also discussed.

We fabricated $YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-x}$(YBCO) films on (00l) $LaAlO_3$ substrates prepared by metal organic deposition(MOD) method using trifluoroacetate(TFA) solution. The films with various thicknesses were prepared by repeating the dip-coating and calcining processes. The effects of film thickness on phase formation, microstructures, and critical properties were evaluated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The microstructure and resultant critical current($I_C$) and critical current density($J_C$) varied remarkably with film thickness: The ($I_C$) value increased from 39 to 160 A/cm-width as the number of coatings increased from one to four, while the corresponding $J_C$ was measured to be in the range of $0.84-1.21\;MA/cm^2$. Both the $I_C$ and $J_C$ decreased when an additional coating was applied due to microstructural degradation, indicating that the optimum thickness is in the range of $1.1-1.8\;{\mu}m$. The possible cause for the decrease in the $I_C$ and $J_C$ value for film thicker than $1.8\;{\mu}m$ include non-uniform thickness, increased surface roughness, and the poor formability of the YBCO phase and texture arising from the insufficient heat treatment time with respect to the increased thickness.

[ $MgB_2$ ] films grown by hybrid physical chemical vapor deposition under appropriate growth conditions commonly exhibit columnar grain structure. The grain boundaries between adjacent columnar grains have been reported to be good flux pinning centers. In this work, we measured the angular dependence of critical current density ($J_c$) and observed the enhanced flux pinning when an external magnetic field was aligned parallel to the columnar direction. This $J_c$ was almost comparable to the $J_c$ for intrinsic pinning case up to 1 T at low temperatures, indicating that grain boundary pinning is very effective. At high fields, however, $J_c$ decreased rapidly resulting from the fact that the density of flux pinning centers provided by grain boundaries was outnumbered by the flux density.

[ $MgB_2$ ] thin films were fabricated using hybrid physical-chemical vapor deposition (HPCVD) method on silicon substrates with buffers of alumina grown by using atomic layer deposition method. The growth war in a range of temperatures $500\;{\sim}\;600^{\circ}C$ and under the reactor pressures of $25\;{\sim}\;50\;Torr$. There are some interfacial reactions in the as-grown films with impurities of mostly $Mg_2Si$, $MgAl_2O_4$, and other phases. The $T_c$'s of $MgB_2$ films were observed to be as high as 39 K, but the transition widths were increased with growth temperatures. The magnetization was measured as a function of temperature down to the temperature of 5 K, but the complete Meissner effect was not observed, which shows that the granular nature of weak links is prevailing. The formation of mostly $Mg_2Si$ impurity in HPCVD process is discussed, considering the diffusion and reaction of Mg vapor with silicon substrates.

We have studied superconducting properties of $Mg_{1-x}Al_xB_2$ single crystals from reversible magnetization measurements. It was found that the upper critical fields $H_{c2}$ were decreased for both H // c and H // ab as Al is substituted for Mg. As a result, the large anisotropy of $H_{c2}$ observed in pure $MgB_2$, which is considered as one of the characteristics of two-gap superconductor, was decreased with Al doping. On the other hand, the irreversibility fields $H_{irr}$ were increased for x = 0.1 and were significantly decreased for x = 0.2. In contrary to the anisotropy of $H_{c2}$, the anisotropy of $H_{irr}$ was increased as Al concentration increases.

We investigated the size effect on quench development in $Au/YBa_2Cu_3O_7$ (YBCO) thin film meander lines on sapphire substrates. The meander lines were fabricated by patterning YBCO films coated with gold layers. The lines were subjected to simulated AC fault current, and immersed in liquid nitrogen during the experiment. After the initial rapid rise, the resistance increased moderately and then slowly. In 4 inch-diameter meander lines, the period during which the resistance increased moderately was considerably longer than in 2 inch-diameter line. Moderate increase of resistance was originated from quench propagation. The film temperature was about 180 K at the point when the propagation was completed. The rate of resistance increase after the quench completion was not affected by the film size.

We fabricated BSCCO-2212(2212) bulk superconductors by using a casting process and evaluated the superconducting properties. The effects of annealing conditions on microstructure and critical properties were studied. It was found that the homogeneous and uniform microstructure improved the critical properties and the microstructures of ingot and annealed rods were different with the size of 2212 rod and tube. The critical current($I_c$) of rods increased with increasing annealing time, probably due to increased grain size of 2212. Annealing time of the highest $I_c$ for the smaller rod(diameter of 10 mm) was shorter(150 hr) than that of the larger rod(diameter of 16 mm, 400 hr). This size effect seems to be related to different grain sizes of the intermediate phases such as 2201 and secondary phases in the ingot. In addition, we fabricated 2212 tubes from the rod by removing the center region which contained inhomogeneous microstructures. The $I_c$ of 2212 tube with the outer diameter of 16 mm and the thickness of 2 mm was measured to 844 A, which corresponds to the critical current density of $1017\;A/cm^2$ at 77 K.