Properties of high-angle Fe(Se, Te) bicrystal grain boundary junctions

We report on the characterization of Fe(Se, Te) grain boundary junctions fabricated on a 45 degrees tilt symmetric bicrystal substrate. The junctions show critical current densities of the order of 10(4) A/cm(2), showing a decay of about one order of magnitude with respect to the critical current density of the film, which is very promising for applications. The current-voltage characteristics show resistively shunted junction-like behaviors, with very low normal-state resistance values, typical of superconducting/normal-metal/superconducting junctions. The magnetic field dependences of the critical currents show the typical behaviors of large Josephson junctions. Nevertheless, the critical current is uniformly distributed across the barrier. We present a simplified theoretical model accounting for this effect. The small influence of faceting along the grain boundary on the electrical parameters may be consistent with an s-wave symmetry of the order parameter. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.