A 110 GHz SIS receiver for radio astronomy

A 110 GHz superconductor insulator superconductor (SIS) tunnel junction receiver has been developed and used in regular astronomical observations on the 4m radio telescope at the Department of Astrophysics, Nagoya University. The SIS junction consists of a sandwich structure of Nb/AlOx/Nb, and is cooled to 4.2K with a closed cycle He-gas refrigerator. The receiver exhibits a best double side band noise temperature of 23±2 K at 110GHz. Additional measurements at 98–115 GHz indicate that the receiver has a good response over this input frequency range.     

Production of high quality Nb/Al-oxide/Nb SIS trilayers for submillimeter wave mixers

Owing to a very sharp nonlinearity in the quasiparticle currentvoltage characteristic, which fortuitously occurs on the scale of a few millivolts rather than a few volts as with semiconductor devices, superconductor/insulator/superconductor (SIS) tunnel junctions are the most sensitive detectors for heterodyne mixing at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. They can also provide sources of coherent local oscillator power at very high frequencies; more broadly, they have a number of interesting applications as fast, low-power logic elements and as detectors at optical wavelengths. For submillimeterwave mixers, in many ways the most demanding of these applications, the Nb/Al-oxide/Nb material system has emerged as the system of choice to frequencies of ∼ 700 GHz and beyond. Production of SIS devices requires careful attention to a number of critical microfabrication issues, and I describe here some of the insights gained from developing a process for high-quality niobium trilayers that successfully yielded small-area junctions with unusually low sub-gap leakage current.     

Josephson coupling and Fiske dynamics in ferromagnetic tunnel junctions

We report on the fabrication of Nb/AlO _x /Pd_0.82Ni_0.18/Nb superconductor/insulator/ferromagnetic metal/superconductor (SIFS) Josephson junctions with high critical current densities, large normal resistance times area products, high quality factors, and very good spatial uniformity. For these junctions a transition from 0- to π-coupling is observed for a thickness d _F @\simeq 6 nm of the ferromagnetic Pd_0.82Ni_0.18 interlayer. The magnetic field dependence of the π-coupled junctions demonstrates good spatial homogeneity of the tunneling barrier and ferromagnetic interlayer. Magnetic characterization shows that the Pd_0.82Ni_0.18 has an out-of-plane anisotropy and large saturation magnetization, indicating negligible dead layers at the interfaces. A careful analysis of Fiske modes provides information on the junction quality factor and the relevant damping mechanisms up to about 400 GHz. Whereas losses due to quasiparticle tunneling dominate at low frequencies, the damping is dominated by the finite surface resistance of the junction electrodes at high frequencies. High quality factors of up to 30 around 200 GHz have been achieved. Our analysis shows that the fabricated junctions are promising for applications in superconducting quantum circuits or quantum tunneling experiments.     

Resonance energy and charge pumping through quantum SINIS contacts

We propose a mechanism of quantum pumping mediated by the spectral flow in a voltage-biased superconductor/insulator/normal-metal/insulator/superconductor quantum junction and realized via the sequential closing of the minigaps in the energy spectrum in resonance with the Josephson frequency. We show that the pumped dc current exhibits giant peaks at rational voltages.     

高温超导混频器在锁相稳频源中的应用

基于小型脉冲管制冷机,设计并改善了与其配套的锁相混频系统,用约瑟夫森颗粒边界结实现了高温超导3mm波段96次谐波混频,完成了60次谐波下压控振荡器的锁相稳频实验。首次实现了基于小型脉冲管制冷机的实用高温超导混频器3mm锁相稳频源。     

A quasiparticle SIN mixer for the 230 GHz frequency range

We report on quasiparticle mixing in the frequency range 220 to 230 GHz using SIN junctions. The lowest double sideband receiver noise temperature measured was about 230 K. This result shows that the SIN junction provides an interesting alternative for high frequency heterodyne receivers where pair tunneling in SIS junctions could give rise to interference from Josephson effects.     

基于制冷机的高温超导谐波混频

我们分别选用了小型脉冲管制冷机以及小型G-M制冷机设计了高温超导混频测量系统,对亚毫米波段谐波混频进行了实验研究.采取了一些抑制系统噪声的措施后,在脉冲管制冷机上我们成功实现了100GHz混频,最高谐波次数达60次,在G-M制冷机上我们实现了300GHz混频,最高谐波次数达100次.     

Josephson Effect in FS/I/N/I/FS Tunnel Junctions

The Bogoliubov de Gennes equation is applied to the study ofcoherence effects in the ferromagnetic superconductor/insulator/normalmetal/insulator/ferromagnetic/superconductor (FS/I/N/I/FS) junction. We calculated the Josephson current in FS/I/N/I/FS as a function of exchange field in ferromagnetic superconductor, temperature, and normal metal thickness. It is found that the Josephson critical current in FS/I/N/I/FS exhibits oscillations as a function of the length of normal metal. The exchange field always suppresses the Josephson critical current I_p for a parallel configuration of the magnetic moments of two ferromagnetic superconductor (FS) electrodes. In the antiparallel configuration, the Josephson critical current I_Ap at the minimum values of oscillation increases with the exchange field for strong barrier strength and at low temperatures.     

实用高温超导混频器3mm锁相稳频源

基于小型脉冲管制冷机,设计并改善了与其配套的锁相混频系统,用约瑟夫森颗粒边界结实现了高温超导3mm波段96次谐波混频,完成了60次谐波下压控振荡器的锁相稳频实验.首次实现了基于小型脉冲管制冷机的实用高温超导混频器3mm锁相稳频源.     

s/FI/d超导结的直流Josephson电流

在 s波超导体 /铁磁绝缘层 / d波超导体 Josephson结 (s/ FI/ d)中 ,考虑结界面铁磁绝缘层的磁散射和粗糙散射情况下 ,运用 Bd G方程和 FT的电流公式计算准粒子的输运系数及 s/ FI/ d结的直流 Josephson电流与温度 T、结两侧的相位差之间的关系。研究表明 :结界面的磁散射和粗造散射均抑制结中准粒子的 Andreev反射 ,降低了流过 s/ FI/ d结的直流 Josephson电流 ,直流Josephson电流 I随温度 T、相位差φ的变化曲线强烈地依赖于 d波超导体的晶轴方位     

Quasiparticle cooling using a topological insulator–superconductor hybrid junction

In this work, we investigate the thermoelectric properties of a hybrid junction realised coupling surface states of a three-dimensional topological insulator with a conventional s-wave superconductor. We focus on the ballistic devices and study the quasiparticle flow, carrying both electric and thermal currents, adopting a scattering matrix approach based on conventional Blonder–Tinkham–Klapwijk formalism. We calculate the cooling efficiency of the junction as a function of the microscopic parameters of the normal region (i.e. the chemical potential, etc.). The cooling power increases when moving from a regime of Andreev specular-reflection to a regime where Andreev retro-reflection dominates. Differently from the case of a conventional N/S interface, we can achieve efficient cooling of the normal region, without including any explicit impurity scattering at the interface, to increase normal reflection.     

Low noise completely quasioptical SIS receiver for radioastronomy at 115 GHZ

Completely quasioptical heterodyne SIS receiver for radioastronomical applications at 115 GHz was designed and tested. Gaussian beam two lens input guide system and open structure SIS mixer with immersion lens were used. Integrated quasioptical structure consists of planar equiangular spiral antenna and superconductor—insulator—superconductor (SIS) tunnel junction as a mixing element connected to the antenna via microstrip impedance transformer. The best SIS mixer noise temperature at hot input and for heterodyne frequency 109.8 GHz with IF central frequency 1.4 GHz (DSB) was 28±7 K at the first quasiparticle step and 8±6 K at the second step.     

dc Josephson Effect in s-Wave Superconductor/Ferromagnet Insulator/p-Wave Superconductor Junctions

The Josephson currents in s-wave superconductor/ferromagnet insulator/p-wave superconductor（s/FI/p） junctions are calculated as a function of temperature and the phase taking into account the roughness scattering effect at interface. The phase dependence of the Josephson current I （φ） between s-wave and px-wave superconductor is predicted to be sin（2φ）. The ferromagnet scattering effect, the barrier strength, and the roughness strength at interface suppress the dc currents in s/FI/p junction.     

A system for measuring absolute frequencies of up to 4.25 THz using a Josephson point contact

A system for measuring the absolute frequency of a far-infrared (FIR) laser is described. Josephson point contacts have been utilized in the system as a frequency harmonic mixer connecting microwaves and optically pumped CH₃OH laser lines. The Josephson point contacts are capable of generating beat signals of 90 GHz microwaves and FIR waves of up to 4.25 THz. To measure the frequency of the beat signals from the Josephson junction with a frequency counter, tracking oscillators have been developed, which tracks the beat signals by phase locking and regenerate clean signals for frequency counting. It is shown that the absolute frequency can be measured to an accuracy of about 100 Hz by using the tracking oscillators.     

An SIS waveguide heterodyne receiver for 600 HGz-635 GHz

A waveguide SIS heterodyne receiver using a Nb/AlO_X/Nb junction has been built for astronomical observations of molecular transitions in the frequency range 600 GHz - 635 GHz, and has been successfully used at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO). We report double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperatures as low as 245 K at 600 GHz -610 GHz, and near 300 K over the rest of the bandwidth. These results confirm that SIS quasiparticle mixers work well at submillimeter-wave frequencies corresponding to photon energies of at least 90% of the superconductor energy gap. In addition, we have systematically investigated the effect on the receiver performance of the overlap between first-order and second-order photon steps of opposite sign at these frequencies. The receiver noise increases by as much as 40% in the region of overlap. We infer potential limitations for operating submillimeter-wave Nb/AlO_x/Nb mixers.     

Coherence effects in S/I/N/I/FS tunnel junctions

The dc Josephson effect in superconductor / insulator / normal metal / insulator/ferromagnetic superconductor junctions has been studied. We calculate the de Josephson current based on the Bogoliubov de Gennes equation. The Josephson current is derived as a function of exchange field in ferromagnetic superconductor, normal metal thickness and insulating barrier strength. It is found that there exists an oscillation relation between the critical Josephson current and the normal metal thickness. The oscillation amplitude decreases as the thickness of the normal metal increases or the exchange field augments.[第一段]     

Resistance oscillations in junctions of superconductor–magnetic system

Resistance oscillations as a function of magnetic field were observed in superconductor–magnetic tunnel junctions of Nb–Fe–FeO_x–SiO₂–Au–Nb. Junctions involving superconductor–magnetic layer superconductor system are exciting because for certain regime of ferromagnetic layer thickness, a Josephson coupling with an intrinsic phase difference of π might be stabilized. For fabrication of the tunnel junctions the thin films were deposited by RF/DC magnetron sputtering. Using photolithography and reactive ion etching, square junctions of size varying from 50 μm to 250 μm were defined. I–V characteristics and R vs. H characteristics were studied at 4.2 K. When the magnetic field is applied parallel to the junction plane, measurements of the junction resistance as a function of magnetic field at a fixed temperature show resistance peaks whenever the total magnetic flux through the junction equals an integral multiple of flux quantum. The penetration depth of the superconducting electrodes was estimated from the positions of the resistance peaks.     

基于小型制冷机的高温超导3mm波段谐波混频

高温超导混频器具有灵敏度和谐波次数高、所需的本振和微波信号功率小、噪声低、工作频带宽等诸多优点.利用小型制冷机制冷有利于高温超导器件的应用.我们设计了与小型制冷机配套的高温超导混频系统,采取一些抑制系统噪声的措施.在该系统上成功实现了高温超导混频器在3毫米波段的50次谐波混频.     

Quantum phase transition and Coulomb blockade with one-dimensional SQUID arrays

We report on experiments with one-dimensional (1D) arrays of small-capacitance superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs), where an external magnetic field can be used to tune in situ the Josephson coupling between neighboring superconducting electrodes. We have studied the superconductor–insulator transition in such arrays, and have also used these arrays to bias a single Josephson junction. In the later experiment, we have observed a clear Coulomb blockade of Cooper-pair tunnelling (CBCPT) in the single junction.     

量子线/绝缘层/p波超导体结的隧道谱

用Bogoliubov-de Gennes方程来研究量子线/绝缘层/p波超导体结(q/I/p)中的准粒子输运过程，利用推广的Blonder，Tinkham和Klapwijk模型计算绝对零度和有限温度下q/I/p的一级谐波隧道谱.和量子线/绝缘层/d波超导体结的一级谐波隧道谱不同的是q/I/p的一级谐波隧道谱中存在零偏压电导峰.随着q/I/p中绝缘层的势垒散射增强，q/I/p的一级谐波隧道谱中零偏压电导峰变高.