This three-year award in support of U.S.-France collaborative research in condensed matter physics involves Paul C. W. Chu and Qidu Jiang at the University of Houston's Texas Center for Superconductivity and Alain Gilabert at the Universite de Nice Laboratoire de Physique de la Matiere Condense. Their research is in an active area of high temperature superconductivity. The goal of their collaboration is to correlate the photodoping properties of bicrystal boundary Josephson junctions with nanometer structures at the bicrystal grain boundary which has been obtained by scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopic techniques. Sample fabrication and non-destructive characterization of the bicrystal boundary will be carried out at the University of Houston. This will be complemented by French studies of their normal state and superconducting properties upon light illumination.
This study of the photodoping effects on the bicrystal boundary junctions will advance fundamental understanding of photodoping mechanisms and the nature of the weak link of high temperature Josephson junction.
