Mesoscopic josephson junctions of high-Tc superconductors -: art. no. 100501

In this paper we examine the state-of-the-art patterning techniques for fabrication of ultrasmall bicrystal Josephson junctions in YBa2Cu3Ox. We determine the dependence of junction parameters-critical current, characteristic voltage IcRn, and capacitance-on its size. Using the values of the Josephson and the Coulomb energies extracted from experiment, we analyze the dynamics of the junction in zero-bias quantum regime. Finally, we discuss the relevance of parameters, obtained from transport measurements, for the decoherence time in the system.