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arXiv:1909.00707 · IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

Fabrication of the Impedance-Matched Josephson Parametric Amplifier and the Study of the Gain Profile

Rui Liang Yang, Huiqiu Deng

Published Apr 6, 2020• 14 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We designed and fabricated an impedance-matched Josephson parametric amplifier (JPA) working in the flux-pump mode for the broadband amplification of microwave signals. A simple fabrication method suitable for a small cleanroom was developed. We also studied the phase response, as well as the gain, as a function of signal frequency and pump power at various pump frequencies. The phase response can be explained with the behavior of the nonlinear Duffing oscillator. The observed decrease of the resonance frequency as the pump power increases, as well as the emergence of an unstable bifurcation zone, are the characteristic nonlinear behavior of the Duffing oscillator. The features of the gain profile in the stable zone can be explained with a model adapted from the theoretical model for the two-dimensional gain profile of an impedance-matched, current-pumped JPA. Over 17 dB gain with a bandwidth more than 300 MHz (centered around 6.45 GHz) was observed. Our impedance-matched JPA is used for improving the fast readout fidelity of transmon qubits.

DOI
10.1109/tasc.2020.2985650

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We designed and fabricated an impedance-matched Josephson parametric amplifier (JPA) working in the flux-pump mode for the broadband amplification of microwave signals. A simple fabrication method suitable for a small cleanroom was developed. We also studied the phase response, as well as the gain, as a function of signal frequency and pump power at various pump frequencies. The phase response can be explained with the behavior of the nonlinear Duffing oscillator. The observed decrease of the resonance frequency as the pump power increases, as well as the emergence of an unstable bifurcation zone, are the characteristic nonlinear behavior of the Duffing oscillator. The features of the gain profile in the stable zone can be explained with a model adapted from the theoretical model for the two-dimensional gain profile of an impedance-matched, current-pumped JPA. Over 17 dB gain with a bandwidth more than 300 MHz (centered around 6.45 GHz) was observed. Our impedance-matched JPA is used for improving the fast readout fidelity of transmon qubits.
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Many experiments operating at millikelvin temperatures with signal frequencies in the microwave regime are beginning to incorporate Josephson Parametric Amplifiers (JPA) as their first amplification stage.While there are implementations for a wideband frequency response with a minimal need for tuning, designs using resonant structures with small numbers of Josephson elements still achieve the best noise performance.In a typical measurement scheme involving a JPA, one needs to control the resonance frequency, pump frequency and pump power to achieve the desired amplification and noise properties.In this work, we propose a straightforward approach for operating JPAs with the help of a look-up table (LUT) and online fine-tuning.Using the proposed approach, we demonstrate the operation of a flux-driven JPA with 20 dB gain around 5.9 GHz, covering approximately 100 MHz with 20 kHz tuning steps.The proposed methodology was successfully used in the context of a haloscope axion experiment.