Anodization-free fabrication process for high-quality cross-type Josephson tunnel junctions based on a Nb/Al-AlO$_x$/Nb trilayer

Abstract: Josephson tunnel junctions form the basis for various superconducting electronic devices. For this reason, enormous efforts are routinely taken to establish and later on maintain a scalable and reproducible wafer-scale manufacturing process for high-quality Josephson junctions. Here, we present an anodization-free fabrication process for Nb/Al-AlO$_x$/Nb cross-type Josephson junctions that requires only a small number of process steps and that is intrinsically compatible with wafer-scale fabrication. We show that the fabricated junctions are of very high-quality and, compared to other junction types, exhibit not only a significantly reduced capacitance but also an almost rectangular critical current density profile. Our process hence enables the usage of low capacitance Josephson junctions for superconducting electronic devices such as ultra-low noise dc-SQUIDs, microwave SQUID multiplexers based on non-hysteretic rf-SQUIDs and RFSQ circuits.