Superconducting and Dissipative Characteristics of Overdamped SNIS Josephson Junctions for Sensing Applications

Josephson-junction devices such as suitably designed nanoSQUIDs can provide a sensing element for micro and nano-electronics. In this paper, the properties of such device must be tailored in order to have an optimal response. In particular, it relates its temperature stability, and a comparatively weak dependence of the critical supercurrent I-c on temperature T in the working range. To realize it, a concave upward I-c-versus-T curve is required. The aim of this paper was to study conditions when such temperature dependence can be realized in four-layered S/N-I-S Josephson junctions, mantaining the overdamped behavior. We show how the shape of the I-c-versus-T dependence can provide important information about the strength of the S/N proximity coupling.