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IEEE Transactions on Magnetics

Josephson harmonic mixing and internal oscillation-mixing in YBCO superconducting weak link at liquid nitrogen temperatures

Jiming Song, Peiheng Wu, Qilin Cheng, Shuzhen Yang, Jun Chen, D. Jin, H.X. Luo, J.S. Kui

Published Mar 1, 1989• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Using a superconducting weak link (bridge) made of YBCO, the authors have successfully observed Josephson harmonic mixing between a local oscillation (LO) at X band and a signal at Ka band. Specifically, fourth-order harmonic mixing between 35.47 GHz and 8.843 GHz was observed. For a given signal level, the IF (intermediate frequency) responses depended strongly on both LO level and DC voltage bias across the junction. For zero bias, there is still IF output which is characteristic of even-order harmonic mixing. When the LO power level is such that the zero voltage current is suppressed to the second zero, the IF responses are maximum if the junction is biased between the zeroth and first steps induced by the LO. Also studied is the internal oscillation-mixing. An incoming signal at either X or Ka band gives rise to IF signal peaks if the junction is biased at voltages such that the corresponding internal Josephson frequencies are equal to, or harmonics of, the incoming signal frequency.>

DOI
10.1109/20.92435

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A new type of harmonic mixer using a series array of short superconducting weak-links is proposed for mixer applications at far-infrared and submillimeter-wave frequencies. The problem of limited mixer dynamic range can be eliminated by the use of a Josephson junction series array structure. Using a eleven-element series array, a preliminary experiment on harmonic mixing was carried out for two signals at 105.9 GHz and 5.4-12.6 GHz. IF (intermediate frequency) output was measured for each harmonic order from 9th to 19th by optimizing local power and bias voltage. In this experiment, 5-dB heightening of the signal-to-noise ratio was obtained at the IF output when the harmonic mixing order n was equal to the series element number, N=11.>

IEEE Transactions on Magnetics•Mar 1, 1989•3 citations
Using a superconducting weak link (bridge) made of YBCO, the authors have successfully observed Josephson harmonic mixing between a local oscillation (LO) at X band and a signal at Ka band. Specifically, fourth-order harmonic mixing between 35.47 GHz and 8.843 GHz was observed. For a given signal level, the IF (intermediate frequency) responses depended strongly on both LO level and DC voltage bias across the junction. For zero bias, there is still IF output which is characteristic of even-order harmonic mixing. When the LO power level is such that the zero voltage current is suppressed to the second zero, the IF responses are maximum if the junction is biased between the zeroth and first steps induced by the LO. Also studied is the internal oscillation-mixing. An incoming signal at either X or Ka band gives rise to IF signal peaks if the junction is biased at voltages such that the corresponding internal Josephson frequencies are equal to, or harmonics of, the incoming signal frequency.>
When a signal at the nominal frequency of 76 GHz and a local oscillation (LO) at the frequency of a few gigahertz were both applied to a YBa2Cu3O7−y weak link immersed in liquid nitrogen, the former mixed with the harmonics of the latter giving rise to output at the intermediate frequency (IF) of about 150 MHz. The highest observed harmonic number was 51. Without exhaustive effort to optimize, the typical IF output power referred to the mixer output ranged between −103 and −112 dbm while the IF signal-to-noise ratio ranged between 16 and 4 db, depending strongly on the local oscillation power, the dc bias current, and the signal power. Reported in this letter are the experimental details as well as the requirements for a superconducting weak link to be a harmonic mixer.
In a c-axis junction stack (10 μm×10 μm in a-b plane) patterned on a Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+X single crystal, we performed harmonic mixings between a 100 GHz signal and up to the 98th harmonic of a local oscillator at about 1 GHz. The dependence of PIF on V, where PIF is the mixing output at the intermediate frequency and V is the dc voltage across the junction stack, was strongly affected by the local oscillator power levels. For low values of local oscillator power, the optimum operation point where PIF became maximum was around zero bias, and typical multi-branch structure of PIF vs V curves were observed. For high values of local oscillator power, the optimum operation point moved to the high-voltage region. In both cases, interesting oscillations occurred on the PIF vs V curves. Our experimental results led us to believe that intrinsic Josephson junctions can be good candidates for high frequency applications and the harmonic mixing may be a useful probe to investigate plasma phenomena in the layered superconductors.
Harmonic mixing characteristics in thin-film YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) Josephson junctions fabricated using photolithography were examined at the liquid nitrogen temperature (77 K) using 94 GHz millimeter wave radiation. As a result, a mixing signal (IF output) was obtained up to the harmonic number of 55 in harmonic mixing using the local oscillation (LO) wave as the microwave. The output strongly depended on the power of the LO and signal waves, and on the Shapiro step spacing induced by the LO wave. The IF output decreased in proportion to N -2 in the lower harmonic number region. However, the rate of decrease increased with an increase in the harmonic number.
Using a high Tc superconducting grain boundary Josephson junction, harmonic mixing experiments in the mm waveband were carried out, aiming at as large a harmonic number and as high a signal frequency as possible. The dependencies of intermediate frequency output on dc bias, harmonic number, frequency of local oscillator (LO), and other parameters were carefully studied. Until now, our best result was the mixing between the signal at 95 GHz and the 105th harmonic of LO at about 900 MHz. Preliminary experiments using a high Tc harmonic mixer and phase-locking loop were tried to stabilize the frequency of a mm wave source.
A new type of harmonic mixer using a series array of short superconducting weak-links is proposed for mixer applications at far-infrared and submillimeter-wave frequencies. The problem of limited mixer dynamic range can be eliminated by the use of a Josephson junction series array structure. Using a eleven-element series array, a preliminary experiment on harmonic mixing was carried out for two signals at 105.9 GHz and 5.4-12.6 GHz. IF (intermediate frequency) output was measured for each harmonic order from 9th to 19th by optimizing local power and bias voltage. In this experiment, 5-dB heightening of the signal-to-noise ratio was obtained at the IF output when the harmonic mixing order n was equal to the series element number, N=11.>