Engineering topics

Mercereau, J. E.

Publications and source records attributed to Mercereau, J. E..

3 records

NASA NTRS1986

A lead-on-sapphire superconducting cavity of superior quality

A cavity consisting of a superconducting lead film on a sapphire substrate has been fabricated to obtain the enhanced frequency stability possible with this configuration. The cavity exhibits a quality value Q exceeding 2 x 10 to the 9th in its TE011 mode with a resonant frequency of 2.689 GHz. Methods of fabrication and testing of the cavity are presented. Since the interface between the film and substrate is exposed ot the full value of the resonant magnetic field, the present experiment is the most sensitive test to date for enhanced losses at the interface itself. No evidence of such losses is used. In fact, the measured values of the surface resistance match very well predictions for RF losses based on the BCS theory.

Thakoor, S.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Microelectronic fabrication of superconducting devices and circuits

It is expected that thin-film superconductors can be used as detectors or sources of infrared and microwave radiation, as magnetometers, as voltage standards, and for voltage and current measurements, for electronic signal processing, and in digital circuitry.

Kirschman, R. K.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Advances in superconducting quantum electronic microcircuit fabrication

Standard microelectronic fabrication techniques have been utilized to produce batch quantities of superconducting quantum electronic devices and circuits. The overall goal is a fabrication technology yielding circuits that are rugged and stable and capable of being fabricated controllably and reproducibly in sizeable quantities. Our progress toward this goal is presented, with primary emphasis on the most recent work, which includes the use of electron-beam lithography and techniques of hybrid microelectronics. Several prototype microcircuits have been successfully fabricated. These microcircuits are formed in a thin-film parent material consisting of layers of superconducting and normal metals, and use proximity-effect structures as the active circuit elements.

Kirschman, R. K.↗