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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

Experimental Investigations on Nonlinear Properties of Superconducting Nanowire Meanderline in RF and Microwave Frequencies

Zhizhong Yan, A. Hamed Majedi

Published Jul 1, 2009• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report our experimental investigations on the radio frequency (RF) and microwave nonlinear behavior of the NbN nanowire meanderline. We construct a lumped element model of the NbN nanowire meanderline, which consists of a kinetic inductance, a normal resistance, and a parasitic capacitance that is a load of a transmission line. Two complementary measurements, which are based on the one-port scattering (S)-parameter technique, are used to explore the nonlinearity in the kinetic inductance and the normal resistance of the NbN nanowire meanderline under dc current and voltage bias conditions. In the first series of experiments, the kinetic inductance has directly been measured from zero up to 99% of the critical current and to the voltage bias, where the hotspot plateau occurs. The Ginsburg-Landau (G-L) theory has been employed to justify the results. The technical procedures required to achieve our desired level of accuracy have been described in detail. In the second series of experiments, the quality factor of the NbN nanowire meanderline has been measured, providing an alternative justification to the first experimental results.

DOI
10.1109/tasc.2009.2021575

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We report our experimental investigations on the radio frequency (RF) and microwave nonlinear behavior of the NbN nanowire meanderline. We construct a lumped element model of the NbN nanowire meanderline, which consists of a kinetic inductance, a normal resistance, and a parasitic capacitance that is a load of a transmission line. Two complementary measurements, which are based on the one-port scattering (S)-parameter technique, are used to explore the nonlinearity in the kinetic inductance and the normal resistance of the NbN nanowire meanderline under dc current and voltage bias conditions. In the first series of experiments, the kinetic inductance has directly been measured from zero up to 99% of the critical current and to the voltage bias, where the hotspot plateau occurs. The Ginsburg-Landau (G-L) theory has been employed to justify the results. The technical procedures required to achieve our desired level of accuracy have been described in detail. In the second series of experiments, the quality factor of the NbN nanowire meanderline has been measured, providing an alternative justification to the first experimental results.
We report microwave transmission measurements of superconducting Fabry-Perot resonators, having a superconducting nanowire placed at a supercurrent antinode. As the plasma oscillation is excited, the supercurrent is forced to flow through the nanowire. The microwave transmission of the resonator-nanowire device shows a nonlinear resonance behavior, significantly dependent on the amplitude of the supercurrent oscillation. We show that such amplitude-dependent response is due to the nonlinearity of the current-phase relationship of the nanowire. The results are explained within a nonlinear oscillator model of the Duffing oscillator, in which the nanowire acts as a purely inductive element, in the limit of low temperatures and low amplitudes. The low-quality factor sample exhibits a ``crater'' at the resonance peak at higher driving power, which is due to dissipation. We observe a hysteretic bifurcation behavior of the transmission response to frequency sweep in a sample with a higher quality factor. The Duffing model is used to explain the Duffing bistability diagram. We also propose a concept of a nanowire-based qubit that relies on the current dependence of the kinetic inductance of a superconducting nanowire.
The recent advancement on niobium nitride (NbN) superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) have drawn considerable attentions by many of their particular figures of merit. In this work, we report our experimental efforts resulting from combinations of dc, RF/microwave and optoelectronic characterizations of this device. The dc IV measurement is under-taken in the full voltage bias range and four distinct regimes are recognized and discussed. The kinetic inductance measurement allows us to gain insights on the electrical properties of the NbN nanowire. An equivalent circuitry model is constructed and simulated for the photoresponse in the course of RF/Microwave S-parameter measurement. The simulated photoresponse qualitatively agrees with the experimental results. Finally we apply continuous wave irradiation to investigate the optical interactions with superconducting nanowires. A relationship between chemical potential and optical power and wavelength has been experimentally confirmed. Two regimes have been identified and physically modeled. The comparison with experimental results displays a good agreement.
We describe a novel class of devices based on the nonlinearity of the kinetic inductance of a superconducting thin film. By placing a current-dependent inductance in a microwave resonator, small currents can be measured through their effect on the resonator’s frequency. By using a high-resistivity material for the film and nanowires as kinetic inductors, we can achieve a large coefficient of nonlinearity to improve device sensitivity. We demonstrate a current sensitivity of 8 pA/√Hz, making this device useful for transition-edge sensor (TES) readout and other cutting-edge applications. An advantage of these devices is their natural ability to be multiplexed in the frequency domain, enabling large detector arrays for TES-based instruments. A traveling-wave version of the device, consisting of a thin-film microwave transmission line, is also sensitive to small currents as they change the phase length of the line due to their effect on its inductance. We demonstrate a current sensitivity of 5 pA/√Hz for this version of the device, making it also suitable for TES readout as well as other current-detection applications. It has the advantage of multi-gigahertz bandwidth and greater dynamic range, offering a different approach to the resonator version of the device. Finally, we also demonstrate a transmission-line resonator version of the device that combines some of the advantages of the nanowire resonator and the traveling-wave device. This version of the device has high dynamic range but can also be easily multiplexed in the frequency domain. A lumped-element resonator similar to the first device can be placed in a loop configuration to make it sensitive to magnetic fields. We demonstrate an example of such a device whose sensitivity could ultimately reach levels similar to those of state-of-the-art DC SQUIDs, making it potentially useful for many magnetometry applications given its ease of multiplexing. Finally, a similar microwave resonator is shown to exhibit parametric gain of up to 29 dB in the presence of a strong pump tone. The noise performance of this parametric amplifier approaches the quantum limit, making it useful for applications in quantum information and metrology.
We present the RF characterization of 2-µm-wide superconducting coplanar waveguides made of 100-nm-thick niobium (Nb) or niobium nitride (NbN) films fabricated on 200 mm silicon wafers. Measurements of the two-ports S-parameters up to 25 GHz in a 4.7K–14 K temperature range with an added direct current up to 115 mA were done using a cryogenic probe station. With proper RF calibration and de-embedding procedure, both temperature and dc current dependence of the RF superconducting properties are analyzed. We report a kinetic inductance of 0.15 pH/□\square□, a critical current density of 50 MA/cm2^{2}2, and a critical temperature of 8.9 K for Nb as well as 4.27 pH/□\square□, 3 MA/cm2^{2}2, and 13.8 K for NbN. A telegraphist transmission line model taking into account the BCS theory has been developed and the comparison with the measurements is discussed.
We characterize inductors fabricated from ultra-thin, approximately 100 nm wide strips of niobium (Nb) and niobium nitride (NbN). These nanowires have a large kinetic inductance in the superconducting state. The kinetic inductance scales linearly with the nanowire length, with a typical value of 1 nH µm(-1) for NbN and 44 pH µm(-1) for Nb at a temperature of 2.5 K. We measure the temperature and current dependence of the kinetic inductance and compare our results to theoretical predictions. We also simulate the self-resonant frequencies of these nanowires in a compact meander geometry. These nanowire inductive elements have applications in a variety of microwave frequency superconducting circuits.
We study the microwave impedance of extremely high aspect ratio (length/width ≈ 5000) superconducting niobium nitride nanowires. The nanowires are fabricated in a compact meander geometry that is in series with the center conductor of a 50 Ω coplanar waveguide transmission line. The transmission coefficient of the sample is measured up to 20 GHz. At high frequency, a peak in the transmission coefficient is seen. Numerical simulations show that this is a half-wave resonance along the length of the nanowire, where the nanowire acts as a high impedance, slow wave transmission line. This resonance sets the upper frequency limit for these nanowires as inductive elements. Fitting simulations to the measured resonance enables a precise determination of the nanowire's complex sheet impedance at the resonance frequency. The real part is a measure of dissipation, while the imaginary part is dominated by kinetic inductance. We characterize the dependence of the sheet resistance and sheet inductance on both temperature and current and compare the results to recent theoretical predictions for disordered superconductors. These results can aid in the understanding of high frequency devices based on superconducting nanowires. They may also lead to the development of novel superconducting devices such as ultra-compact resonators and slow-wave structures.