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Journal of Physics Conference Series

mm-wave harmonic generation in an array of SIS junctions

Bhushan Billade, Alexey Pavolotsky, Victor Y. Belitsky

Published May 12, 2014• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the first experimental off-chip detection of frequency multiplication in a distributed array of Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) junctions. A test device consisting of series array of 68 Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb tunnel junctions was designed to study generation of the second harmonic. We measured extremely sharp spectral signals, associated with the × 2 frequency multiplication. Distinct single and multi-photon processes were observed in the test device response operated in quantum mode. The mechanism of device saturation was experimentally studied. The test device when connected to the input of an SIS mixer, and pumped, showed 10 – 20% increase in the SIS junction dark current.

DOI
10.1088/1742-6596/507/4/042005

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We report the first experimental off-chip detection of frequency multiplication in a distributed array of Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) junctions. A test device consisting of series array of 68 Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb tunnel junctions was designed to study generation of the second harmonic. We measured extremely sharp spectral signals, associated with the × 2 frequency multiplication. Distinct single and multi-photon processes were observed in the test device response operated in quantum mode. The mechanism of device saturation was experimentally studied. The test device when connected to the input of an SIS mixer, and pumped, showed 10 – 20% increase in the SIS junction dark current.
We report the first experimental off-chip detection of frequency multiplication in a distributed array of superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) junctions. A test device consisting of series array of 68 Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb tunnel junctions was designed to study generation of the second harmonic in the 190-210 GHz band. The SIS array was exited with microwave radiation at 3-mm band using a quasi-optically coupled Gunn oscillator, and the output response of the device was studied using a double-sideband SIS mixer operating in the 163-211 GHz range with 4-8 GHz IF bandwidth. We measured extremely sharp spectral signals, associated with the ×2 frequency multiplication by the SIS array. Single- and multi-photon processes were observed in the response of SIS tunnel junction-array to the applied microwave radiation, confirming device operation in the quantum mode. The output power of the multiplied signal increases linearly with the power of the pumping signal up to certain level and them saturates. In attempt to verify that the device produces noticeable power, the output of the test device was connected to the LO port of the SIS mixer, and an increase of 10%-20% in the SIS mixer dark current was observed. Further development of the demonstrated principle of frequency multiplication may lead to a practical frequency multiplier device.
We report the experimental study of the off-chip detection of frequency multiplication in a distributed array of Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) junctions. A test device consisting of a series array consisting sixty eight Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb tunnel junctions was designed for this study, and was fabricated using in-house Nb thin-film technology. The test device with SIS array was optimized for the study of second harmonic generation in 182−192 GHz output frequency band. The SIS array was exited with microwave radiation at 3 mm band using a quasi-optically coupled Gunn oscillator and the output response of the device was studied using a double sideband SIS mixer operating in 163 − 211 GHz range with 4−8 GHz. The Josephson-effect for both the SIS multiplier and the detector mixer was carefully suppressed using magnetic field. We observed very sharp second harmonic spectral signals, due to frequency multiplication by the SIS array. We also observed distinct multi-photon process in the SIS array tunnel junction response to the applied microwave signal, and the amplitude of the multiplied signal shows dependence on the bias voltage of the SIS array. We observed that the output power of the multiplied signal increases linearly with the power of the pumping signal up to certain level and them saturates. Increasing the input power beyond this level results in the heating of the chip. When the output of the test device was connected to the LO port of the SIS-mixer, an increase of 10 − 20% in the SIS -mixer dark current was observed when the SIS mixer was voltage biased in the middle of first photon step below the gap voltage. The device, although far from providing sufficient power to pump a practical SIS mixer, may be considered as a first experimental step towards SIS frequency multipliers.
We report heterodyne measurements of Josephson microwave radiation emitted by a parallel array of small superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) junctions at submillimeter-wave frequencies. The array consists of five Nb/Al–AlOx/Nb junctions nonevenly distributed in a niobium superconducting stripline, and is optimized for rf coupling in the 450–640 GHz range. We observed Fiske-like resonant steps in its I-V curve in the presence of magnetic field. The device was placed in a waveguide mount, and its radiation was quasioptically coupled out of the cryostat, to a SIS-mixer spectrometer in the same frequency range, with a 4–8 GHz band for spectral analysis. We detected a coherent signal in the spectra when the array was biased on the first and third steps, respectively, at the first harmonic frequency of 242 GHz and at the fundamental frequency of 493 GHz, both being the Josephson frequencies associated with their dc voltages. This strongly suggests that this type of parallel arrays optimized for wideband rf coupling, though strongly discretized, hosts dynamic fluxon regimes similar to long Josephson junctions, which could find applications in superconducting digital electronics or integrated heterodyne submillimeter-wave receivers.
In this paper, we present the analysis, design, and characterization of the first frequency multiplier using distributed superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) junctions. We derived analytical expressions describing the properties of the distributed SIS junction as a frequency multiplier. The modeling of the distributed SIS junctions shows that high conversion efficiency can be achieved when used as the multiplier. The measured output power generated by such multiplier employing the distributed SIS junction at the second harmonic of the input frequency is in good agreement with the model. Furthermore, the frequency multiplier based on the distributed SIS junction for the first time was able to pump an SIS mixer. The multiplication efficiency of the distributed SIS junction is 15-30% for a fractional bandwidth of 10% with excellent spectral line purity. The -3 dB line width of the multiplied signal is 1 Hz, which was limited by the resolution bandwidth of the spectrum analyzer. The results attained in this paper show that the distributed SIS junction frequency multiplier has considerable future potential, and could possibly be used in LO source in single-end and multipixel SIS mixer receivers.
A 230-GHz subharmonically pumped waveguide mixer employing superconducting tunnel junctions has been developed. We present, in this paper, an experimental study of harmonic superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixing at 230 GHz, focusing mainly on its noise behavior. The mixer has a double-tuned waveguide structure and employs an array of four 1.7-/spl mu/m/sup 2/ Nb-AlOx-Nb SIS junctions in series, with /spl omega/R/sub n/C/sub j//spl sim/3 at 230 GHz. Harmonic quantum mixing occurred over an experimental frequency range of 205-235 GHz (local oscillator: 112.5-117.5 GHz), exhibiting corresponding double sideband noise temperatures of lower than 150 K, with a lowest value of 75 K at /spl sim/230 GHz. The measured mixer noise is believed to be the lowest yet reported for a mixer using subharmonic-pump configuration at this frequency. A phenomenon that we attribute to the third harmonic SIS mixing has also been observed.
We experimentally investigate different mixing regi-mes in Nb/AlOx/Nb and Nb/AlN/NbN tunnel superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) junctions. The SIS mixers were studied with regard to the following modes of operation: in an extremely low-frequency range (0.1-20 GHz) and as high harmonic mixers; n ≈ 20-30 at signal frequencies of about 500 GHz that requires high power of a local oscillator. The quasiparticle and Josephson mixing regimes have been compared. We demonstrate that, in some applications requiring high conversion efficiency, the Josephson regime can be more preferable than the quasiparticle regime due to a larger output signal and better signal-to-noise ratio. As an example of such an application, we consider the phase locking of a THz oscillator using a cryogenic harmonic phase detector, which only ought to realize all of its benefits under the Josephson mixing regime. In addition, we demonstrate that the presence of the Josephson effect results in considerable increase in conversion efficiency at the expense of the dynamic range decrease; it was measured for low-frequency up- and down-convertors, which are promising for cryogenic multiplexing systems.