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TEION KOGAKU (Journal of Cryogenics and Superconductivity Society of Japan)

Photomixing Optical-Microwave Transformer Coupled with High-TC Josephson Junctions.

Toshihiko Kiwa, Masayoshi Tonouchi

Published Jan 1, 2003• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A new type of optical-microwave conversion system has been developed as an interface between optical systems and high-speed electric circuits. The microwave was generated by mixing two optical beams in a photodiode and radiated from a rod antenna, which was placed beside a high-Tc grain boundary Josephson junction detector. Since frequencies of radiated microwaves correspond to the frequency differences between the two optical beams, the wavelength information of the beams is reflected in the current-voltage and differential resistance-voltage properties of the Josephson junction. System operation up to 20 GHz was demonstrated by changing the wavelength of the two beams and the temperature of the Josephson junction. The relation between the frequency differences and measured Shapiro step intervals suggests that the system can be utilized for a highly sensitive optical-microwave conversion.

DOI
10.2221/jcsj.38.9

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A new type of optical-microwave conversion system has been developed as an interface between optical systems and high-speed electric circuits. The microwave was generated by mixing two optical beams in a photodiode and radiated from a rod antenna, which was placed beside a high-Tc grain boundary Josephson junction detector. Since frequencies of radiated microwaves correspond to the frequency differences between the two optical beams, the wavelength information of the beams is reflected in the current-voltage and differential resistance-voltage properties of the Josephson junction. System operation up to 20 GHz was demonstrated by changing the wavelength of the two beams and the temperature of the Josephson junction. The relation between the frequency differences and measured Shapiro step intervals suggests that the system can be utilized for a highly sensitive optical-microwave conversion.
An optical–microwave conversion system has been proposed as a high-stability oscillator in the microwave and millimetre-wave frequency region. A photomixer with heterodyne mixing of two lasers was applied to generate electromagnetic waves and a high-TC grain boundary Josephson junction detector was used to monitor the frequency of the electromagnetic waves in real time. We described the system in detail; it employed a sealed optical connector to introduce the optical signal directly into the cryostat.
We have fabricated a generation and detection system of photomixing signals using a photomixing technique and a Josephson junction detector. Up to now, an electromagnetic wave generated by a heterodyne mixing of two lasers was emitted from an antenna, and irradiated to a Josephson junction. In this study, we have developed the system, and the photomixing signal was introduced into a coaxial cable and a coplanar wave guide coupled to a Josephson junction. This structure is more suitable for device application since it can easily be integrated into electronic devices. With this system we can clearly observed photomixing signals from 16 GHz to 95 GHz using a uni-traveling-carrier photodiode as a photomixer as well as signals in the range of 14 GHz to 50 GHz using an InGaAs PIN photodiode.
Microbridge-type Josephson junctions made of granular bulk YBCO superconductors were experimentally studied at microwave frequencies. Although the bridge included many grain boundaries, clear Shapiro steps were induced at every hf/2e voltage for microwave frequencies, and step height dependence for microwave power similar to that of a single weak link bridge was observed. A heterodyne mixing experiment of microwaves at about 20 GHz was also performed using the detector. The IF signal showed peak amplitudes corresponding to the peak dynamic resistance due to nonlinearity resulting from the Josephson effect. It was confirmed that the detector operates stably for the Josephson-effect heterodyne mixer at 60 K or below. The detector has potential for high sensitivity and good impedance matching due to its large dynamic resistance and high normal state resistance, respectively.
Sensitivity of high temperature superconducting (HTS) Josephson detectors at millimetre-wave band has been studied in detail. YBCO grain boundary Josephson junctions with the normal-state resistance ( R N ) around 1 Ω and I C R N product of less than 2 mV have been fabricated for this study, where I C is the critical current of the junction. A Gunn oscillator at the frequency of 98 GHz together with a set of calibrated attenuators with a total attenuation of 90 dB are used as a signal source. A quasi-optical system, which consists of a wideband planar log-periodic antenna encompassing the junction, parabolic mirrors and a hyperhemispherical silicon lens, has been used as an effective coupling system. Sensitivity increases with I C R N . Using a junction with I C R N of 300 µV, a sensitivity of about 9000 V W −1 has been obtained, which is higher than that of the Schottky diode detectors at the same frequency band and demonstrates that the HTS Josephson detectors are very sensitive at millimetre-wave band.
Using high-Tc Josephson junctions made of YBa2Cu3O7−δ deposited across MgO bicrystal boundary, at terahertz (THz) frequency band, we demonstrated both fundamental and harmonic mixing. Radiation from a far-infrared laser was coupled to the junction, which was integrated with a planar bow-tie antenna, via an extended hyperhemispherical silicon lens. Fundamental mixing manifested itself in the junction’s dc current–voltage (I–V) curve as a third Shapiro step in addition to those two induced by the THz laser lines from a slightly misaligned resonator. In harmonic mixing between a THz laser line and a microwave local oscillator, the highest harmonic number we could get was 490 with a signal-to-noise ratio of 9 dB at the intermediate frequency.
High Tc Josephson junctions have IcRn products as large as a few mV at liquid helium temperature, and hence, the frequency normalized by IcRn∕Φ0 becomes on the order of 10−3 for a gigahertz (GHz) microwave signal. (Here, Ic, Rn, and Φ0 are the critical current, the normal resistance, and a flux quantum, respectively.) It is well known that a microwave-current-driven Josephson junction does not exhibit clear Shapiro steps under such low frequency conditions. Instead of Shapiro steps, however, we often observe a current-step-like structure in the current–voltage curve of YBa2Cu3O7−δ grain boundary Josephson junctions coupled to a GHz signal. In this article, we present a model analysis for such current-step-like structures. Two types of device models are employed: a simple resistively and capacitively shunted junction model and a rf-field-driven two-junction superconducting quantum interference device model. Numerical results of the latter model agree with the experimental results, which indicates that the envelope of small Shapiro steps, including the effects of microwave-induced motion of flux quanta, appears as a current-step-like structure in a high Tc Josephson device coupled to a GHz microwave.