  Self-shunted aluminum Josephson junctions with high-transparency barriers
were fabricated using the shadow-evaporation technique and measured at low
temperatures, T=25 mK. Due to high junction transparency, the
IV-characteristics were found to be of only small hysteresis with
retrapping-to-switching current ratio of up to 80%. The observed critical
currents were close to the Ambegaokar-Baratoff values (up to 80-100%). Good
barrier quality was confirmed by the low subgap leakage currents in the
quasiparticle branches, which makes the self-shunted Al junctions promising for
application in integrated RSFQ-qubit circuitry.
