Electronic cooling of a submicron-sized metallic beam

Abstract

We demonstrate electronic cooling of a suspended AuPd island using superconductor-insulator-normal metal tunnel junctions. This was achieved by developing a simple fabrication method for reliably releasing narrow submicron-sized metal beams. The process is based on reactive ion etching and uses a conducting substrate to avoid charge-up damage and is compatible with, e.g., conventional e-beam lithography, shadow-angle metal deposition, and oxide tunnel junctions. The devices function well and exhibit clear cooling, up to a factor of 2 at sub-Kelvin temperatures.