A system for fast time-resolved measurements of c-axis quasiparticle conductivity in intrinsic Josephson junctions of 2212-BSCCO

TL;DR

This paper introduces a cryogenic measurement system for rapid time-resolved IV-characteristics of 2212-BSCCO junctions, highlighting the impact of self-heating on short time scales and its implications for superconducting gap measurements.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel measurement system enabling fast, time-resolved analysis of quasiparticle conductivity in intrinsic Josephson junctions, emphasizing the role of self-heating effects.

Findings

Self-heating significantly affects measurements on 50 ns time scales.

Previous IV-characteristics may have been influenced by unaccounted self-heating.

The system allows more accurate analysis of superconducting properties.

Abstract

A wide-band cryogenic amplifier measurement system for time-resolved four-point IV-characteristic measurements on 2212-BSCCO mesa structures is described. We present measurements which demonstrate the importance of self-heating on 50 ns time scales. Such heating is likely to have been very significant in many previously published measurements, where the reported nonlinear IV characteristics have been used to derive superconducting energy gaps.