Anisotropic proximity coupling in small YBa2Cu3O7-normal-Pb junctions

Abstract
We report results of current‐voltage measurements made on small‐area YBa2Cu3O7N‐Pb thin‐film junctions (N=Au, Ag) where the orientation of the Cu‐O plane has been varied from (001) to (103) to (100) to study the effects of anisotropy. For (001) and (103) oriented junctions there is no well defined supercurrent despite very low contact resistances. By contrast, (100) junctions do display a well defined supercurrent. We compare these results to recent Josephson work and discuss implications for tunnellng and device work.