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Applied Physics Letters

A cryogenic amplifier for direct measurement of high-frequency signals from a single-electron transistor

S. L. Pohlen, Richard J. Fitzgerald, J. M. Hergenrother, M. Tinkham

Published May 10, 1999• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have developed a cryogenic voltage amplifier using GaAs metal semiconductor field effect transistors and coupled it to a superconducting single-electron transistor (SET) inside a dilution refrigerator. With this amplifier, we could extend the maximum output frequency of the SET, normally less than a kilohertz, up to 1 MHz. By placing this amplifier off-chip, we could maintain the low SET temperature required for proper SET operation.

DOI
10.1063/1.124046

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We have developed a cryogenic voltage amplifier using GaAs metal semiconductor field effect transistors and coupled it to a superconducting single-electron transistor (SET) inside a dilution refrigerator. With this amplifier, we could extend the maximum output frequency of the SET, normally less than a kilohertz, up to 1 MHz. By placing this amplifier off-chip, we could maintain the low SET temperature required for proper SET operation.
A broadband low-noise four-stage high-electron-mobility transistor amplifier was designed and characterized in a cryogen-free dilution refrigerator at the 3.8 K temperature stage. The obtained power dissipation of the amplifier is below 20 mW. In the frequency range from 6 to 12 GHz its gain exceeds 30 dB. The equivalent noise temperature of the amplifier is below 6 K for the presented frequency range. The amplifier is applicable for any type of cryogenic microwave measurements. As an example we demonstrate here the characterization of the superconducting X-mon qubit coupled to an on-chip coplanar waveguide resonator.
We examine a silicon-germanium heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) for cryogenic pre-amplification of a single electron transistor (SET). The SET current modulates the base current of the HBT directly. The HBT-SET circuit is immersed in liquid helium, and its frequency response from low frequency to several MHz is measured. The current gain and the noise spectrum with the HBT result in a signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) that is a factor of 10–100 larger than without the HBT at lower frequencies. The transition frequency defined by SNR = 1 has been extended by as much as a factor of 10 compared to without the HBT amplification. The power dissipated by the HBT cryogenic pre-amplifier is approximately 5 nW to 5 μW for the investigated range of operation. The circuit is also operated in a single electron charge read-out configuration in the time-domain as a proof-of-principle demonstration of the amplification approach for single spin read-out.
Abstract The many advantages of cryogenically cooled single-flux quantum (SFQ) circuits imply that the high speed and low voltage output signals must be amplified and interfaced with standard electronics. State-of-the-art low-noise and wide-band amplifiers are required to interface with room temperature electronics. One solution is to place preamplifiers at the cryogenic stage, which requires specific semiconductor design and fabrication. However, a more viable and energy-efficient approach is to integrate the pulsed logic circuit output stages with on-chip superconductor preamplifiers. We designed, fabricated, and tested an on-chip compact voltage multiplier integrated with the output stage of SFQ circuits to increase the voltage amplitude of SFQ pulses. The circuit is designed with the same technology as the logic circuit hence its noise level is lower, and it works at higher frequencies compared to complementary metal-oxide semi-conductor amplifiers and due to quantized nature of it there is no added noise. The fabricated circuit has a compact size of 160 µ m × 320 µ m and provides about 10 dB gain with measured 600 µ V output voltage at frequencies up to ∼25 GHz in simulations. By stacking more levels, over 20 dB gain at circuit level is achievable as shown in simulations. Moreover the gain of the superconductor voltage amplifier is quantized and programmable.
We present a realization of high bandwidth instrumentation at cryogenic temperatures and for dilution refrigerator operation that possesses advantages over methods using radio frequency single electron transistor or transimpedance amplifiers. The ability for the low temperature electronics to carry out faster measurements than with room temperature electronics is investigated by the use of a phosphorous-doped single electron transistor. A single shot technique is successfully implemented and used to observe the real-time decay of a quantum state. A discussion on various measurement strategies is presented and the consequences on electron heating and noise are analyzed.
We use a cryogenic high-electron-mobility transistor circuit to amplify the current from a single electron transistor, allowing for demonstration of single shot readout of an electron spin on a single P donor in Si with 100 kHz bandwidth and a signal to noise ratio of ∼9. In order to reduce the impact of cable capacitance, the amplifier is located adjacent to the Si sample, at the mixing chamber stage of a dilution refrigerator. For a current gain of ∼2.7×103, the power dissipation of the amplifier is 13 μW, the bandwidth is ∼1.3 MHz, and for frequencies above 300 kHz the current noise referred to input is ≤70 fA/Hz. With this amplification scheme, we are able to observe coherent oscillations of a P donor electron spin in isotopically enriched 28Si with 96% visibility.
There is a great deal of interest in amplifiers with extremely high bandwidth, low noise and low power consumption which interface RSFQ circuits with commercial room temperature electronics or amplifying SFQ pulses. In this special application a hybrid amplifier should interface an RSFQ circuitry with a Josephson junction array quantizer chip (JA-Q) at 4.2 K. The input signal for the amplifier is generated by an RSFQ signal generator and the output signal fed-in to a Josephson array quantizer. A voltage gain of about 10 4 with a pattern frequency of 2 GHz for a good transfer of the SFQ pulses is required. Additionally, the JA-Q requires a high output current at low power consumption of the amplifier at the same time. Various hybrid amplifiers based on commercially available p-HEMT transistors in an embedded microwave design were designed and characterized. For the p-HEMT transistor characterization at cryogenic temperatures the biasing settings according to an optimum between voltage gain A V and low power consumption P V were determined. Thus a power consumption of P V = 2 mW and a voltage gain of about A V = 4 per stage were achieved. For a preamplifier and an amplifier concept a number of these stages were implemented in a microstrip and a coplanar transmission line design with a special matched interconnect taper towards the RSFQ components. Measurements of the amplifiers and the combination of the amplifiers and the JA-Q at 4.2 K showed their good performance without any disturbances of the quantized voltage steps.