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arXiv:2304.13227

An rf Quantum Capacitance Parametric Amplifier

Abdallah El Kass, C. T. Jin, J. D. Watson, G. C. Gardner, Saeed Fallahi, Michael J. Manfra, D. J. Reilly

Published Apr 26, 2023• 0 citations
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Abstract

We demonstrate a radio-frequency parametric amplifier that exploits the gate-tunable quantum capacitance of an ultra high mobility two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in a GaAs heterostructure at cryogenic temperatures. The prototype narrowband amplifier exhibits a gain greater than 20 dB up to an input power of - 66 dBm (1 dB compression), and a noise temperature TN of 1.3 K at 370 MHz. In contrast to superconducting amplifiers, the quantum capacitance parametric amplifier (QCPA) is operable at tesla-scale magnetic fields and temperatures ranging from milli kelvin to a few kelvin. These attributes, together with its low power (microwatt) operation when compared to conventional transistor amplifiers, suggest the QCPA may find utility in enabling on-chip integrated readout circuits for semiconductor qubits or in the context of space transceivers and radio astronomy instruments.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2304.13227

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We demonstrate a radio-frequency parametric amplifier that exploits the gate-tunable quantum capacitance of an ultra high mobility two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in a GaAs heterostructure at cryogenic temperatures. The prototype narrowband amplifier exhibits a gain greater than 20 dB up to an input power of - 66 dBm (1 dB compression), and a noise temperature TN of 1.3 K at 370 MHz. In contrast to superconducting amplifiers, the quantum capacitance parametric amplifier (QCPA) is operable at tesla-scale magnetic fields and temperatures ranging from milli kelvin to a few kelvin. These attributes, together with its low power (microwatt) operation when compared to conventional transistor amplifiers, suggest the QCPA may find utility in enabling on-chip integrated readout circuits for semiconductor qubits or in the context of space transceivers and radio astronomy instruments.
We report an rf parametric amplifier that exploits the gate-tunable quantum capacitance of a semiconductor two-dimensional electron gas at cryogenic temperatures. The prototype amplifier exhibits a gain approximately 30 dB up to an input power of − 66 dBm and a noise temperature T N ∼ 2 K at approximately 370 MHz while dissipating approximately a microwatt of power. Operable at tesla-scale magnetic fields and temperatures ranging from millikelvin to a few kelvin, the quantum capacitance parametric amplifier may find utility in the readout circuit of spin qubits. Here, a quantum dot system is used to verify amplifier performance, improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the readout by approximately 9 dB.
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Advancing superconducting quantum devices to higher operating frequencies broadens their functionality and enables operation at elevated temperatures, but it also requires near-quantum-limited amplifiers beyond the few-gigahertz regime. Here we present a junction-free, kinetic-inductance parametric amplifier based on thin-film niobium nitride (NbN) operating at 23 GHz in the microwave K-band, achieving a gain up to 40 dB, a 100 MHz gain-bandwidth product, a 1 dB saturation input power of -85 dBm with 23 dB gain, and added noise no greater than 1.4 quanta for phase-preserving amplification. Leveraging the large superconducting gap of NbN, this architecture can be extended to even higher frequencies, supporting applications such as high-fidelity readout of millimeter-wave superconducting qubits and axion searches over an expanded mass window.
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Advancing superconducting quantum devices to higher operating frequencies broadens their functionality and enables operation at elevated temperatures, but it also requires near-quantum-limited amplifiers beyond the few-gigahertz regime. Here, we present a junction-free, kinetic-inductance parametric amplifier based on thin-film niobium nitride (NbN) operating at 23 GHz in the microwave K-band, achieving a gain up to 40 dB, a 100 MHz gain–bandwidth product, a 1 dB saturation input power of −85 dBm with 23 dB gain, and added noise not greater than 1.4 quanta for phase-preserving amplification. Leveraging the large superconducting gap of NbN, this architecture can be extended to even higher frequencies, supporting applications such as high-fidelity readout of millimeter-wave superconducting qubits and axion searches over an expanded mass window.
Most microwave readout architectures in quantum computing or sensing rely on a semiconductor amplifier at 4 K, typically a high-electron mobility transistor (HEMT). Despite its remarkable noise performance, a conventional HEMT dissipates several milliwatts of power, posing a practical challenge to scale up the number of qubits or sensors addressed in these architectures. As an alternative, we present an amplification chain consisting of a kinetic inductance traveling-wave parametric amplifier (KITWPA) placed at 4 K, followed by a HEMT placed at 70 K, and demonstrate a chain-added noise ${T}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}}=6.3\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.5$ K between 3.5 and 5.5 GHz. While, in principle, any parametric amplifier can be quantum limited even at 4 K, in practice we find the performance of the KITWPA to be limited by the temperature of its inputs and by an excess of noise Tex=1.9{T}_{\mathrm{ex}}=1.9Tex​=1.9 K. The dissipation of the rf pump of the KITWPA constitutes the main power load at 4 K and is about 1% that of a HEMT. These combined noise and power dissipation values pave the way for the use of the KITWPA as a replacement for semiconductor amplifiers.