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arXiv:1206.0193 · Physical Review B

Single Cooper-pair pumping in the adiabatic limit and beyond

Simone Gasparinetti, Paolo Solinas, Y. Yoon, Jukka P Pekola

Published Aug 2, 2012• 18 citations
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Abstract

We demonstrate controlled pumping of Cooper pairs down to the level of a single pair per cycle, using an rf-driven Cooper-pair sluice. We also investigate the breakdown of the adiabatic dynamics in two different ways. By transferring many Cooper pairs at a time, we observe a crossover between pure Cooper-pair and mixed Cooper-pair-quasiparticle transport. By tuning the Josephson coupling that governs Cooper-pair tunneling, we characterize Landau-Zener transitions in our device. Our data are quantitatively accounted for by a simple model including decoherence effects.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.86.060502

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We demonstrate controlled pumping of Cooper pairs down to the level of a single pair per cycle, using an rf-driven Cooper-pair sluice. We also investigate the breakdown of the adiabatic dynamics in two different ways. By transferring many Cooper pairs at a time, we observe a crossover between pure Cooper-pair and mixed Cooper-pair-quasiparticle transport. By tuning the Josephson coupling that governs Cooper-pair tunneling, we characterize Landau-Zener transitions in our device. Our data are quantitatively accounted for by a simple model including decoherence effects.
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We measure the high-frequency emission of a single Cooper pair transistor (SCPT) in the regime where transport is only due to tunneling of Cooper pairs. This is achieved by coupling on chip the SCPT to a superconductor-insulator-superconductor junction and by measuring the photon assisted tunneling current of quasiparticles across the junction. This technique allows a direct detection of the ac Josephson effect of the SCPT and provides evidence of Landau-Zener transitions for proper gate voltage. The emission in the regime of resonant Cooper pair tunneling is also investigated. It is interpreted in terms of transitions between charge states coupled by the Josephson effect.
We have carried out first measurements on a novel type of a charge pump nicknamed the Cooper pair "sluice". The device is an adiabatic flux-assisted Cooper pair pump consisting of a mesoscopic superconducting island and of two SQUID loops. The operation is based on the periodic manipulation of a single voltage gate and two input coils controlling the magnetic flux through the SQUID loops. Based on theoretical estimates the device is capable of producing as high as 0.1 nA currents at better than 10-accuracy and looks thus like a promising candidate for the current source in completing the quantum measurement triangle. In spite of several nonidealities in our preliminary measurement setup, we have succeeded in verifying the pumping behavior of the sluice. The pumped currents were quite high, several hundred pA, but the accuracy needs to be increased. The results obtained so far suggest various ways of improving the measurement setup
We study adiabatic charge transfer in a superconducting Cooper-pair pump, focusing on the influence of current measurement on coherence. We investigate the limit where the Josephson coupling energy EJ{E}_{J}EJ​ between the various parts of the system is small compared to the Coulomb charging energy EC.{E}_{C}.EC​. In this case, the charge transferred in a pumping cycle ${Q}_{P}\ensuremath{\sim}2e,$ the charge of one Cooper pair: The main contribution is due to incoherent Cooper-pair tunneling. We are particularly interested in the quantum correction to QP,{Q}_{P},QP​, which is due to coherent tunneling of pairs across the pump and which depends on the superconducting phase difference ${\ensuremath{\varphi}}_{0}$ between the electrodes; $1\ensuremath{-}{Q}_{P}/(2e)\ensuremath{\sim}{(E}_{J}{/E}_{C})\mathrm{cos}{\ensuremath{\varphi}}_{0}.$ A measurement of QP{Q}_{P}QP​ tends to destroy the phase coherence. We first study an arbitrary measuring circuit and then specific examples and show that coherent Cooper-pair transfer can, in principle, be detected using an inductively shunted ammeter.
We have developed a quantitative theory of Cooper pair pumping in gated one-dimensional arrays of Josephson junctions. The pumping accuracy is limited by quantum tunneling of Cooper pairs out of the propagating potential well and by direct supercurrent flow through the array. Both corrections decrease exponentially with the number N of junctions in the array, but give a serious limitation of accuracy for any practical array. The supercurrent at resonant gate voltages decreases with N only as $\mathrm{sin}(\ensuremath{\varphi}/N)/N,$ where $\ensuremath{\varphi}$ is the Josephson phase difference across the array.