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We have performed (voltage–current) V–I measurements on a thin film YBa2Cu3O7 4° [001] tilt low-angle grain boundary over an extensive range of temperatures and fields, verifying the presence of a linear characteristic. We report on the occurrence of the linear characteristic in its basic form and on the observation of V–I kinking into several, and in some cases numerous, linear segments. We interpret these findings in terms of a variation in the dissipative width at the grain boundary. Kinking from one linear V–I section to another of different gradient is described in terms of a change in the number of vortex rows being viscously channeled along the boundary.

Transport critical current measurements have been performed on 5 degrees [001]-tilt thin film YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7-delta) single grain boundaries with the magnetic field rotated in the plane of the film, phi. The variation of the critical current has been determined as a function of the angle between the magnetic field and the grain boundary plane. In applied fields above 1 T the critical current j(c) is found to be strongly suppressed only when the magnetic field is within an angle phi(k) of the grain boundary. Outside this angular range the behavior of the artificial grain boundary is dominated by the critical current of the grains. We show that the phi dependence of j(c) in the suppressed region is well described by a flux cutting model.

We report Josephson junctions in YBa2Cu3O7−δ  films, fabricated by oxygen irradiation through a 50 nm wide slit in an implantation mask. After annealing the irradiated microbridges at 500 °C in an oxygen atmosphere, this process creates a homogeneous barrier region with a reduced but finite transition temperature, allowing Josephson coupling in a temperature window of ⩽15 K. Over the entire temperature range of Josephson coupling these junctions show resistively shunted junction behavior. The exponential dependence of the critical current on temperature is in good agreement with conventional superconductor–normal–superconductor proximity effect theory.

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The dependence of the critical current density, Jc, on the orientation of an applied magnetic field has been measured for two YBa2Cu3O7 [001]-tilt low-angle grain boundaries. As the field is rotated in the boundary plane, a marked hysteresis in the variation of Jc with angle is observed. The effect is visible as a clear shift in the position of the intrinsic pinning peak as a function of the direction of field rotation (θ+ or θ-). In addition, we observe a switch over from Jc(θ+) to Jc(θ-) in just a few degrees of field rotation and find angular hysteresis to be increasingly pronounced at both low field and low temperature. Similar measurements taken on intragranular tracks displayed no hysteresis, suggesting the effect is associated with the presence of the grain boundary. We explore one possible model, involving flux trapping within the sample, to explain this hysteretic behaviour.

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