Superconducting phase qubits with shadow-evaporated Josephson junctions

We develop a fabrication process for the superconducting phase qubits in which Josephson junctions for both the qubit and superconducting quantum interference device(SQUID) detector are prepared by shadow evaporation with a suspended bridge. Al junctions with areas as small as 0.05 μm~2 are fabricated for the qubit, in which the number of the decoherencecausing two-level systems(TLS) residing in the tunnel barrier and proportional to the junction area are greatly reduced. The measured energy spectrum shows no avoided crossing arising from coherent TLS in the experimentally reachable flux bias range of the phase qubit, which demonstrates the energy relaxation time T_1 and dephasing time T_φ on the order of 100 ns and 50 ns, respectively. We discuss several possible origins of decoherence from incoherent or weakly-coupled coherent TLS and further improvements of the qubit performance.     

电子型掺杂高温超导体La2-xCexCuO4飞秒时间分辨动力学研究

利用飞秒时间分辨光抽运探测技术研究了电子型掺杂La2-xCexCuO4(LCCO)高温超导材料的准粒子超快动力学过程.得到低温(T＜0.7Tc)、转变温度附近(0.7Tc≤T≤Tc)和高温(T＞Tc)三个温区内的动力学行为.研究发现,低温时准粒子寿命随温度上升而下降,接近转变温度时出现反常的上升,正常态准粒子寿命受赝能隙影响明显大于金属中电声子的弛豫时间.还发现电子型掺杂LCCO光感生反射率变化△R/R动力学曲线存在皮秒量级的上升过程,它反映Cooper对被打散的时间较长,上升时间随温度增加而变短.采用Rothwarf和Taylar提出的理论模型对实验结果进行了分析.     

超导薄膜的磁场穿透深度的测量

我们设计和研究了用于测量超导薄膜穿透深度的双线圈互感装置,用数值模拟的方法对线圈及其位形进行了优化．对磁控溅射制备的不同厚度的铌膜在不同温度下的测量结果表明,我们的设计大大提高了实验的准确性和稳定性,并得到了理论预期的随膜厚和温度的变化关系     

全铌隧道结 dc SQUID的制备和研究

本文用磁控溅射方法研究了全铌隧道结 dc SQUID 的制备.根据铌结的Stewart-McCumber参量βc选择确定结的并联电阻,消除了结的回滞,并联电阻后的I-V曲线很好的符合RSJ模型.为了获得大的磁通电压调制幅度,设计了较小的SQUID环孔, 环孔电感为L～25pH.由此制备的SQUID 具有传输函数((e)v/(e)φe)Ib,其本征能量分辨率达～24h.     

S/S′层状超导体的穿透深度

在Ｓ／ Ｓ′层状超导材料中,由于邻近效应的存在,其超导电性在垂直于层的平面方向是空间变化的．本文通过一个Ｓ／Ｓ′系统的邻近效应模型,其中Ｔｃ,Ｓ＞ Ｔｃ,Ｓ′,研究了磁场穿透深度λ（Ｔ） 在材料及样品参数变化时的特性．研究表明,随着Ｓ′层的厚度、超导转变温度、电阻率、以及Ｓ／Ｓ′的层间耦合强度的改变,λ（ Ｔ） 显示出丰富的特性,其中许多特征与近年来对常规超导系统及高Ｔｃ 超导材料中的测量所得的结果类似     

Microwave Response of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ Surface Intrinsic Josephson Junctions with Bending Pancake Vortices

We study the microwave response of surface intrinsic Josephson junctions on Bi2Sr2 CaCu2O8＋δ, in which bending pancake vortex lines are introduced in a controllable way. It is found that the bending vortices can greatly influence the response. In some cases, typical Shapiro steps that lie far above the quasiparticle branch are observed, with the step interval satisfying the Josephson relation and their amplitude versus the square root of microwave power following the Bessel function behaviour. In the other cases, current steps that lie on the quasiparticle branch are observed, but only one or two steps appear at the same time under the variation of the microwave power.     

高温超导台阶结YBCO dc-SQUID一阶平面梯度计

在10mm×10mm SrTiO₃(STO)台阶衬底上用单层YBa₂Cu₃ O_7-δ(YBCO)薄膜制备了dc-SQUID一阶平面梯度计,探测环面积约为33mm ²,基线长度d=45mm.该梯度计在无屏蔽条件下对地磁场有较好的屏蔽作用,共模抑 制比为14×10²,磁场梯度灵敏度为8PT/cmHz(白噪声区). 关键词： 台阶结 SQUID 平面梯度计     

Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δAu界面性质的研究

采用高真空下(2～3×10-5Pa)原位,低温(77K)解理,高速原位蒸发金膜的方法,我们得到了接近"本征"的CuO2/Au接触界面.测量结果显示接触界面为欧姆接触.四端法测量的结果显示这样的界面有着较小的电阻率(<1.5×10-8Ωcm2).我们认为,一种可能是因为临近效应的影响造成了CuO2/Au接触界面电阻的消失,而所测量到的剩余电阻实际应为外电路引入的电阻,而另一种可能是界面仍然存在一极小的欧姆接触电阻.这将对研究高温超导体与金属接触的界面性质有着积极的意义.     

Research on high-T-c SQUID based non-destructive evaluation

A non-destructive evaluation system based on high-T_c dc-SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device) incorporating a gradient field excitation has been built. By using this system a 1mm-diameter hole at a depth of 2mm inside an aluminium plate at room temperature can be easily detected and imaged in an unshielded environment. The relation between the spatial resolution, or the smallest detectable flaw size, and experimental parameters is briefly analysed in terms of a simple metal ring model. The result shows that the spatial resolution depends strongly on the sensor-sample separation as well as on some other parameters, such as signal-to-noise ratio of excitation, excitation frequency and material conductivity.     

Phase escape of current-biased Josephson junctions

Switching current distributions of an Nb/Al--AlO_x/Nb Josephson junction are measured in a temperature range from 25~mK to 800~mK. We analyse the phase escape properties by using the theory of Larkin and Ovchinnikov (LO) which takes discrete energy levels into account. Our results show that the phase escape can be well described by the LO approach for temperatures near and below the crossover from thermal activation to macroscopic quantum tunneling. These results are helpful for further study of macroscopic quantum phenomena in Josephson junctions where discrete energy levels need to be considered.