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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Using The Josephson Effect For Millimeter And Submillimeter Wave Generation

James E. Lukens, A. K. Jain, K. L. Wan

Published May 18, 1988• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Research is in progress to develop a local oscillator at 1 THz based on the Josephson effect in superconductors. In general, it is necessary to use arrays of Josephson junctions to obtain the required power, linewidth and impedance levels from such sources. The criteria for properly phase-locking the junctions in such an array, distributed over many wavelengths, are discussed along with the projected performance at 1 THz. A power level of 1μW at 300GHz has been demonstrated using these designs.

DOI
10.1117/12.943979

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Research is in progress to develop a local oscillator at 1 THz based on the Josephson effect in superconductors. In general, it is necessary to use arrays of Josephson junctions to obtain the required power, linewidth and impedance levels from such sources. The criteria for properly phase-locking the junctions in such an array, distributed over many wavelengths, are discussed along with the projected performance at 1 THz. A power level of 1μW at 300GHz has been demonstrated using these designs.
A submillimeter-wave oscillator using a phase-locked array of Josephson junctions is demonstrated. With an array of 40 shunted tunnel junctions, the oscillator delivers 1 mu W of power at 350 GHz into a 60- Omega load on the chip. The operating frequency of the oscillator is tunable over a range of about 10%. Experiments on two coupled lead alloy tunnel junctions show that Josephson oscillations exist to about 1 THz. Using a similar design and a higher gap superconductor such as NbN for the transmission lines, arrays operating at 1 THz with power outputs of 1 mW should be feasible.>
A submillimeter wave source based on a new design using Josephson junction arrays has been developed and tested. The maximum rf power, delivered to a 68Ω load and detected on chip, was 47 μW at 394 GHz. Significant power was detected at a number of frequencies from 300 to 500 GHz where the power was 10 μW. The observed power at the designed operating frequency near 400 GHz is consistent with all 500 junctions in the series biased array delivering current in phase to the loads. This is in agreement with simulations of smaller arrays of the same design. The linewidth, inferred from the measured resistance at the point of maximum power, with T=4.2 K, is less than 1 MHz. The minimum inferred linewidth near 400 GHz, at somewhat lower power, is about 100 kHz.
Josephson junctions are natural voltage-controlled oscillators capable of generating submillimeter-wave-length radiation, but a single junction usually can produce only 100 nW of power and often has a broad spectral linewidth. The authors are investigating 2-D quasi-optical power combining arrays of 10/sup 3/ and 10/sup 4/ NbN/MgO/NbN and Nb/Al-AlO/sub x//Nb junctions to overcome these limitations. The junctions are DC biased in parallel and are distributed along interdigitated lines. The arrays couple to a resonant mode of a Fabry-Perot cavity to achieve mutual phase-locking. The array configuration has a relatively low impedance, which should allow the capacitance of the junctions to be tuned out at the oscillation frequency.>
We present a basic description of Josephson junctions and discuss their use as GHz and THz oscillators. The resistively shunted junction model is used to calculate the available power, linewidth, and operating frequency of the oscillators. We discuss how phase-locked arrays of junctions are used to achieve higher power and narrower linewidth. Two experimental examples of phase-locked emission are shown: one from on-chip detection circuits at 150 GHz and one detected off-chip showing a 13-kHz linewidth at 88.8 GHz.>