Nanofabrication by current stimulated atomic migration

The displacement of atoms caused by high electric current densities was already identified in the late 1960s as a major problem of narrow Al interconnects in integrated circuits and other electronic devices. The negative perception of this phenomenon, known as electromigration, has progressively changed during the last decades, as the scientific community first understood the physical mechanisms involved in the process and then learnt to master it. Nowadays, controlled electromigration can be regarded as a very promising tool for modifying the physical properties of micro and nanoscale materials with single atom resolution and with a high degree of flexibility. In this work, we adopt this emerging technique to achieve in situ targeted modulation of the materials properties in superconducting devices.