Growth of high-quality Bi2Sr2 CaCu2O8+δ whiskers and electrical properties of resulting exfoliated flakes.

In this work, we demonstrate a simple technique to grow high-quality whiskers of Bi2 Sr2 CaCu2 O8+δ - a high T c superconductor. Structural analysis shows the single-crystalline nature of the grown whiskers. To probe electrical properties, we exfoliate these whiskers into thin flakes (~50 nm thick) using the scotch-tape technique and develop a process to realize good electrical contacts. We observe a superconducting critical temperature, T c , of 86 K. We map the evolution of the critical current as a function of temperature. With 2-D materials emerging as an exciting platform to study low-dimensional physics, our work paves the way for future studies on two-dimensional high-T c superconductivity.