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IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society Annual Meeting (LEOS)

Ultrafast superconducting optoelectronics

Roman Sobolewski

Published Jan 20, 2003• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Ultrafast phenomena, optoelectronics, and superconductivity are acknowledged fields of technological importance and a very large amount of research has been performed in these areas in recent years. In modern, highly-advanced digital electronic circuits, the primary function of high-performance, high-speed signal processing is given to superconducting single-flux-quantum (SFQ) logical devices, based on resistively-shunted Josephson tunnel junctions. The development of this branch of digital electronics requires ultrafast, and ultra sensitive optical-to-electrical transducers for fiber optic interconnects, which must be able to transform to the electrical domain the input information coded in the form of a train of ultrafast optical pulses and, subsequently, feed it into the SFQ processor.

DOI
10.1109/leos.1999.811886

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Ultrafast phenomena, optoelectronics, and superconductivity are acknowledged fields of technological importance and a very large amount of research has been performed in these areas in recent years. In modern, highly-advanced digital electronic circuits, the primary function of high-performance, high-speed signal processing is given to superconducting single-flux-quantum (SFQ) logical devices, based on resistively-shunted Josephson tunnel junctions. The development of this branch of digital electronics requires ultrafast, and ultra sensitive optical-to-electrical transducers for fiber optic interconnects, which must be able to transform to the electrical domain the input information coded in the form of a train of ultrafast optical pulses and, subsequently, feed it into the SFQ processor.
The basic concepts of the ultrafast optoelectronic interface for superconducting digital electronics are presented. Several implementations of both the input optical-to-electrical and the output electrical-to-optical transducers are discussed. As an example, an optoelectronic telecommunication router is used that is capable of switching signals at a >100 Gbit s −1 rate on a single wavelength. We demonstrate that superconducting optoelectronics emerges as the ultimate solution to the ultrafast input/output (I/O) interface of single-flux-quantum (SFQ)-based, superconducting digital electronics.
Superconducting devices have intrinsically superior characteristics to those of semiconductor devices. Presently, we can fabricate more than twenty thousand junctions on one chip using niobium technology. We have demonstrated the operation of a network system with a superconducting interconnection chip using voltage-state logic. Single flux quantum devices are promising for future superconducting applications because the clock frequency of SFQ logic is higher than that of voltage-state. We have proposed a high-end switch based on hybrid architecture using optical devices, semiconductors and SFQ devices. To demonstrate the high-speed operation of SFQ circuits, we developed an arbiter circuit that uses SFQ components and the arbiter circuit operates at 60 GHz. We also have developed a high Tc superconducting (HTS) SFQ sampler system for observing ultra-fast signal waveforms. In addition, we will discuss the prospects of future superconducting devices based on the fabrication technologies we developed.
Rapid-Single-Flux-Quantum (RSFQ) digital circuits based on shunted Josephson junctions have been shown to be able to digitally process signals up to several hundreds GHz. The principle of operation is based on the generation, transport and processing of picosecond voltage pulses of 2.07 mV.ps quantized area, which corresponds to one quantum flux h/2e. Operation of RSFQ circuits can be performed with clock frequencies of the order of 20 to 50 GHz with present technology. We will present current developments and experimental results obtained so far, based on circuits developed in the JeSEF RSFQ process of IPHT Jena, using a 1 kA/cm2 shunted Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb junctions. Some particular potential applications for space will be emphasized
Single flux quantum (SFQ) logic circuits, in which a single flux quantum is used for an information carrier, have a possibility to open a new digital system operated with over 100 GHz clock frequencies at extremely low power dissipations. Recently, much progress in basic technologies for designing SFQ circuits and operating circuits with high speeds has been done. By taking advancements in these designing tools, circuits including more than several thousands junctions easily operated with the clock frequency of more than several tens GHz. Applications of SFQ circuits such as high performance computers, high end router and high end servers are being developed in the world taking advantages of the high through-put nature and the low power dissipation of the SFQ logic.
The main goal of this work is to evaluate theoretically and experimentally the properties of ultrafast opto-superconducting interfaces used to trigger superconducting digital RSFQ circuits externally and to read the outcoming signal from the rapid single-flux-quantum (RSFQ) circuits. To do this, optoelectronics sampling techniques based on a Ti-Sa femtosecond pulsed laser are used. In a first step, miscellaneous Josephson junction-based devices (series of junctions, SQUIDS, simple RSFQ circuits) have been measured to evaluate the properties of the superconductive devices. In particular, I-V curves and magnetic diffraction patterns curves have been obtained. Since the picosecond pulses carried by the RSFQ circuits are weak, of the order of 1 mV or less, the interfaces with the external world have to be carefully designed. Therefore, the potentialities of different photoconductive switches for ultrafast and sensitive detection of picosecond pulses emitted by superconducting digital circuits are evaluated. To do so, a study of the influence of different electrical parameters associated to the geometry of photoswitches electrodes deposited on LT-GaAs materials is performed. The electrical response of dc-biased photoswitches illuminated by femtosecond pulses from a pulsed 800 nm Ti-Sa laser has been calculated for different geometries of electrodes. Using electro-optical sampling techniques, the response of some photoswitches are currently being measured.
Abstract Devices combining superconductors with semiconductors offer a wide range of applications, particularly in the growing field of quantum information processing. This is due to their ability to take advantage of both the extensive knowledge gathered in the field of semiconductors and the unique quantum properties of superconductors. This results in novel device concepts, such as structures generating and detecting entangled photon pairs as well as novel optical gain and laser realizations. In this review, we discuss the fundamental concepts and the underlying physical phenomena of superconductor–semiconductor optoelectronics as well as practical device implementations.