Abstract
A simple technique for attaching a number of electrical leads to a small sample of YBa2Cu3O7-x has been devised. Thin gold wires are spark-bonded onto a crystal by using a capacitor discharge. As-bonded contacts are highly resistive suggesting a local oxygen deficiency caused by the bonding process. Contact resistance (for a contact area ∼10-2 mm2) can be lowered to ∼1 Ω by annealing at 800°C in an oxygen atmosphere. Some results of electrical measurements on single crystal samples of YBa2Cu3O7-x using this technique are presented.