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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

Phase locking experiments in distributed arrays of Josephson junctions

R. P. Robertazzi

Published Jun 1, 1995• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Arrays of phase locked Josephson junctions are attractive for use as sub-mm wavelength voltage controlled oscillators for heterodyne mixers and free space radiators. We have performed phase locking experiments on 40 junction, parallel biased arrays of Josephson junctions coupled through transmission lines of varying delays. The longest junction to junction delay implemented was 5.4 ps for a design frequency of 90 GHz, while the shortest was 1.45 ps, for a design frequency of 345 GHz. The resonant frequency f/sub 0/ of the arrays was found to be almost independent of the transmission line delay with f/sub 0/, scaling with the plasma frequency for arrays fabricated at critical current densities of 10/sup 3/ and 4.5/spl times/10/sup 3/A/cm/sup 2/. The data indicate that at the resonant frequency, strong phase locking is present among the junctions for junction separations significantly less than one half wavelength even in arrays many wavelengths long.>

DOI
10.1109/77.403151

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Arrays of phase locked Josephson junctions are attractive for use as sub-mm wavelength voltage controlled oscillators for heterodyne mixers and free space radiators. We have performed phase locking experiments on 40 junction, parallel biased arrays of Josephson junctions coupled through transmission lines of varying delays. The longest junction to junction delay implemented was 5.4 ps for a design frequency of 90 GHz, while the shortest was 1.45 ps, for a design frequency of 345 GHz. The resonant frequency f/sub 0/ of the arrays was found to be almost independent of the transmission line delay with f/sub 0/, scaling with the plasma frequency for arrays fabricated at critical current densities of 10/sup 3/ and 4.5/spl times/10/sup 3/A/cm/sup 2/. The data indicate that at the resonant frequency, strong phase locking is present among the junctions for junction separations significantly less than one half wavelength even in arrays many wavelengths long.>
Experiments on Josephson soliton oscillators phase locked to cavity modes of a coplanar waveguide resonator are discussed. The junctions were made using a trilayer Nb/AlO/sub x//Nb structure with a current density of about 1000 A/cm/sup 2/. Strong coupling between the junctions and the cavity was observed at 34 and 100 GHz. Subharmonic structure on the current-voltage characteristics indicate weaker coupling up to 300 GHz. These results are important for designing integrated soliton local oscillators for superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixers in the millimeter band.
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.>
A high temperature superconducting YBa2Cu3Oy array of five Josephson junctions designed with additional coupling lines has been developed to demonstrate the effects of frequency locking and impedance matching for applications such as oscillators, mixers, and detectors. The Josephson self-radiation power was directly detected by a superheterodyne receiver, and Shapiro steps were also measured. The Josephson self-radiation properties reveal good quality of phase locking and microwave coupling with external circuits. The maximum self-radiation power of our array is about 50 pW which is several ten times higher than that of a single Josephson junction, and its peak point exactly satisfies the Josephson current-voltage relation. The Shapiro-step measurements show that the behavior of current-voltage curve depends on the effective inductance of coupling lines which affects the total impedance of Josephson junction array and microwave coupling. The Josephson oscillation frequency was obtained up to about 880 GHz which is 73% of the maximum available frequency calculated from the characteristic voltage of the Josephson junctions. Experimental results show that this type of Josephson junction array can improve the Josephson self-radiation power and increase the maximum detectable frequency.
The high frequency properties of the one-dimensional transmission line consisting of a parallel array of resistively shunted Josephson tunnel junctions have been studied in the limit of relatively low damping where this nonlinear system exhibits new and interesting phenomena. Here we report on experimental investigations of a resonant step observed at a voltage corresponding to 600 GHz in the dc current-voltage characteristic of a parallel array of 20 identical small NbAlO/sub x/Nb Josephson junctions interconnected by short sections of superconducting microstrip line. The junctions are mutually phase locked due to collective interaction with the line sections excited close to the half wavelength resonance. The phase locking range can be adjusted by means of an external dc magnetic field and the step size varies periodically with the magnetic field.>
The high frequency properties of the one-dimensional transmission line consisting of a parallel array of resistively shunted Josephson tunnel junctions have been studied in the limit of relatively low damping where this nonlinear system exhibits new and interesting phenomena. Here we report on experimental and numerical investigations of a resonant step observed at a voltage corresponding to 600 GHz in the dc current-voltage characteristic of a parallel array of 20 identical small NbAl2O3Nb Josephson junctions interconnected by short sections of superconducting microstrip line. The junctions are mutually phase locked due to collective interaction with the line sections excited close to the half wavelength resonance. The phase locking range can be adjusted by means of an external dc magnetic field and the step size varies periodically with the magnetic field. The largest step corresponds to a superconducting phase difference of π between neighboring junctions.
The results of numerical simulations of phase-locked 1D and 2D Josephson-junction arrays are reported. It is shown that the multi-junction structures with non-local junction interaction provide phase-locked oscillation state within wide critical current margins /spl Delta/I/sub c/ up to 40...50%. The effective non-local interaction in 2D structure based on 4-junction interferometer cell can be provided by the regular single flux quantum array flow across it. The wide tolerable spread in /spl Delta/I/sub c/ allows one to realize both (i) phase-locked 2D high-T/sub c/ Josephson-junction array with the oscillation frequency F close to characteristic value F/sub c/ and (ii) based on Nb tunnel Josephson-junction technology 1D array with the voltage-controlled phase-locked oscillation frequency within wide frequency band from 0.4 F/sub c/ to 1.2 F/sub c/.