Large-area superconducting nanowires fabricated based on laser exposure on photoresist

To realize large-scale micro/nanofabrication process in superconducting devices, the nano laser direct writing (NLDW) as a potential tool was implemented. In this paper, thermal effect induced laser-matter (superconducting film) interaction based on laser direct writing on Nb films and laser exposure on photoresist were investigated by simulation and experiment. To avoid nanoscale thermal effect on superconducting films, large-scale superconducting nanoarrays with the area up to 100 μm × 100 μm based on laser exposure on photoresist were fabricated. Compared with laser direct writing on superconducting films, which lead to the degradation of superconducting performance such as critical current, transition temperature, the superconducting nanoarrays based on laser exposure on photoresist maintain excellent superconducting performance without degradation. Besides that, by further optimizing the process parameters and the thickness of photoresist, the nanowires with the width down to nanometers are plausible. Compared with the traditional electron beam and ion beam process, to some extent, the nanowires fabrication process based on NLDW provides a more efficient and cost-effective path for the fabrication of large-area superconducting devices/circuits.