We introduce a microwave bolometer aimed at high-quantum-efficiency detection of wave packet energy within the framework of circuit quantum electrodynamics, the ultimate goal being single microwave photon detection. We measure the differential thermal conductance between the detector and its heat bath, obtaining values as low as $5\phantom{\rule{4.pt}{0ex}}\text{fW}/\mathrm{K}$ at $50\phantom{\rule{4.pt}{0ex}}\text{mK}$. This is one tenth of the thermal conductance quantum and corresponds to a theoretical lower bound on noise-equivalent power of order ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}20}\phantom{\rule{4.pt}{0ex}}\text{W}/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ at $50\phantom{\rule{4.pt}{0ex}}\text{mK}$. By measuring the differential thermal conductance of the same bolometer design in substantially different environments and materials, we determine that electron-photon coupling dominates the thermalization of our nanobolometer.
We introduce a microwave bolometer aimed at high-quantum-efficiency detection of wave packet energy within the framework of circuit quantum electrodynamics, the ultimate goal being single microwave photon detection. We measure the differential thermal conductance between the detector and its heat bath, obtaining values as low as 5fW/K at 50mK. This is one tenth of the thermal conductance quantum and corresponds to a theoretical lower bound on noise-equivalent power of order 10\ensuremath−20W/Hz at 50mK. By measuring the differential thermal conductance of the same bolometer design in substantially different environments and materials, we determine that electron-photon coupling dominates the thermalization of our nanobolometer.
One of the most promising approaches towards large-scale quantum computation uses devices based on many Josephson junctions. Yet, even today, open questions regarding the single junction remain unsolved, such as the detailed understanding of the quantum phase transitions, the coupling of the Josephson junction to the environment or how to improve the coherence of a superconducting qubit. Here we design and build an engineered on-chip reservoir connected to a Josephson junction that acts as an efficient bolometer for detecting the Josephson radiation under non-equilibrium, that is, biased conditions. The bolometer converts the a.c. Josephson current at microwave frequencies up to about 100 GHz into a temperature rise measured by d.c. thermometry. A circuit model based on realistic parameter values captures both the current-voltage characteristics and the measured power quantitatively. The present experiment demonstrates an efficient, wide-band, thermal detection scheme of microwave photons and provides a sensitive detector of Josephson dynamics beyond the standard conductance measurements.
A Josephson junction (JJ) has been under intensive study ever since 1960's. Yet even in the present era of building quantum information processing devices based on many JJs, open questions regarding a single junction remain unsolved, such as quantum phase transitions, coupling of the JJ to an environment and improving coherence of a superconducting qubit. Here we design and build an engineered on-chip reservoir that acts as an efficient bolometer for detecting the Josephson radiation under non-equilibrium (biased) conditions. The bolometer converts ac Josephson current at microwave frequencies, up to about 100GHz, into a measurable dc temperature rise. The present experiment demonstrates an efficient, wide-band, thermal detection scheme of microwave photons and provides a sensitive detector of Josephson dynamics beyond the standard conductance measurements. Using a circuit model, we capture both the current-voltage characteristics and the measured power quantitatively.
Quantum calorimetry, the thermal measurement of quanta, is a method of choice for ultrasensitive radiation detection ranging from microwaves to gamma rays. The fundamental temperature fluctuations of the calorimeter, dictated by the coupling of it to the heat bath, set the ultimate lower bound of its energy resolution. Here we reach this limit of fundamental equilibrium fluctuations of temperature in a nanoscale electron calorimeter, exchanging energy with the phonon bath at very low temperatures. The approach allows noninvasive measurement of energy transport in superconducting quantum circuits in the microwave regime with high efficiency, opening the way, for instance, to observe quantum jumps, detecting their energy to tackle central questions in quantum thermodynamics.
Abstract Radiation sensors based on the heating effect of absorbed radiation are typically simple to operate and flexible in terms of input frequency, so they are widely used in gas detection1, security2, terahertz imaging3, astrophysical observations4 and medical applications5. Several important applications are currently emerging from quantum technology and especially from electrical circuits that behave quantum mechanically, that is, circuit quantum electrodynamics6. This field has given rise to single-photon microwave detectors7–9 and a quantum computer that is superior to classical supercomputers for certain tasks10. Thermal sensors hold potential for enhancing such devices because they do not add quantum noise and they are smaller, simpler and consume about six orders of magnitude less power than the frequently used travelling-wave parametric amplifiers11. However, despite great progress in the speed12 and noise levels13 of thermal sensors, no bolometer has previously met the threshold for circuit quantum electrodynamics, which lies at a time constant of a few hundred nanoseconds and a simultaneous energy resolution of the order of 10h gigahertz (where h is the Planck constant). Here we experimentally demonstrate a bolometer that operates at this threshold, with a noise-equivalent power of 30 zeptowatts per square-root hertz, comparable to the lowest value reported so far13, at a thermal time constant two orders of magnitude shorter, at 500 nanoseconds. Both of these values are measured directly on the same device, giving an accurate estimation of 30h gigahertz for the calorimetric energy resolution. These improvements stem from the use of a graphene monolayer with extremely low specific heat14 as the active material. The minimum observed time constant of 200 nanoseconds is well below the dephasing times of roughly 100 microseconds reported for superconducting qubits15 and matches the timescales of currently used readout schemes16, 17, thus enabling circuit quantum electrodynamics applications for bolometers.
Sensitive and reliable photon detectors are ubiquitous tools in countless fields of engineering and the sciences. One of the most mature and widely applied approaches to photodetection is bolometry, where the absorption of radiation causes a measurable change in the temperature of the absorber material. Applications of bolometry include fields such as astrophysics, medicine, particle physics, and metrology, all of which greatly benefit from the development of more versatile and efficient detectors. In the field of superconducting quantum circuits, considerable progress has recently been made in developing ultrasensitive superconducting bolometers. Operating in the single-photon regime, these devices hold great potential for several applications within quantum technology, including qubit state measurement and characterization of microwave components and cryogenic environments. State-of-the-art bolometers based on graphene have been shown to reach sufficient energy resolution and operation speed to be applicable in the context of circuit quantum electrodynamics. In this thesis, a superconducting bolometer based on superconductor-normal-metal-superconductor Josephson junctions is studied. In particular, a detection protocol based on optimal filtering of the noisy detector output signal is implemented to detect microwave pulses during continuous operation of the device. The fidelity of the implemented real-time detection scheme is experimentally tested and compared to the theoretical energy resolution of the studied bolometer, computed from noise equivalent power. The device is found to reach 50% detection probability with minimal dark-count rate at pulse energies of approximately 2.2 zJ, exceeding the predicted resolution of 0.75 zJ by only a factor of three. In addition, the characteristic energy of the detector is determined to be approximately 1.5 zJ based on the total energy of pulses detected with fidelity F=0.5. The results give hope of future applications of the detection scheme to more sensitive bolometer samples.
In this Letter, we experimentally demonstrated that Josephson threshold detectors (JTDs) could be developed to implement the sensitive detection of broadband microwave photons. Beginning with the numerical simulations of the damped dynamics for the macroscopic phase particle generated by a Josephson junction (JJ), we showed that the time-domain threshold voltage state switched measurements of the JJ driven by a low-frequency triangular wave current, which could be utilized to implement the sensitive microwave photons detection. The detectable signal power can be determined by using the Kumar–Caroll index to quantify the distinguishability between two statistical distributions on the measured threshold switched durations of the JJ with and without the signal input. Experimentally, we fabricated the Al/AlOx/Al JJ and measured its threshold responses, at 50 mK temperature, to the input microwave photons at the frequency of ∼5 GHz. The experimental results indicated that the weak microwave signals, which are phenomenologically threatened by the additional thermal noise that modifies the damped phase dynamics of the JJ, can be detected by the fabricated JTD. The detectable power of the microwave signals demonstrated here was calibrated as about −92 dBm (corresponding to the photons rate of ∼2×108 photons/ms). Based on the numerical simulations for optimizing the relevant performance indicators of the detectors, we further argue that the JTDs could be utilized to achieve the sensitive detection of broadband microwave photons at the single-photon level.