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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

A high-temperature superconducting receiver for low-frequency radio waves

D. Reagor, Yan Fan, C. Mombourquette, Quanxi X. Jia, Larry G. Stolarczyk

Published Jan 1, 1997• 12 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have developed a receiver for low-frequency radio waves using high-temperature superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs). The primary application of such a receiver is to communicate in underground areas where the overburden results in significant losses at the usual radio frequencies. The receiver constructed consists of a SQUID, a small dewar, control electronics, and a battery pack. The SQUID was fabricated in our laboratory using an edge junction technology, discussed in previous publications. For this work we increased the effective area by including a standard galvanically coupled pickup loop. We have investigated background noise spectra and found that the low noise door of the SQUIDs can be fully utilized in the receiver, provided that the signals be encoded with a bandwidth narrower than the 60 Hz spacing between powerline harmonics. The most significant advantage of SQUIDs for this application is that they allow the compact construction of three-axis receivers that are necessary to overcome a dominant source of vibrational or motional noise.

DOI
10.1109/77.659437

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We have developed a receiver for low-frequency radio waves using high-temperature superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs). The primary application of such a receiver is to communicate in underground areas where the overburden results in significant losses at the usual radio frequencies. The receiver constructed consists of a SQUID, a small dewar, control electronics, and a battery pack. The SQUID was fabricated in our laboratory using an edge junction technology, discussed in previous publications. For this work we increased the effective area by including a standard galvanically coupled pickup loop. We have investigated background noise spectra and found that the low noise door of the SQUIDs can be fully utilized in the receiver, provided that the signals be encoded with a bandwidth narrower than the 60 Hz spacing between powerline harmonics. The most significant advantage of SQUIDs for this application is that they allow the compact construction of three-axis receivers that are necessary to overcome a dominant source of vibrational or motional noise.
The authors have developed a method for communicating in underground areas with voice. This system utilizes low-frequency electromagnetic radiation and high-temperature superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) as receivers. The system is primarily used to communicate in underground areas using through-the-earth electromagnetic waves. The underground areas are typically mines, but the application is not restricted to that purpose. The communication channel is being used to send voice that has been digitally compressed. Typical rock masses do not allow conventional radio frequency electromagnetic waves to penetrate significant distances. Here, the authors use carrier frequencies of a few kilohertz that penetrate hundreds of meters into rock masses. They are using low-noise broadband superconducting receivers and have established that the signals propagate several hundred meters with modest power levels. Audio has been successfully received at distances in excess of 100 m through solid rock.
We have performed a study of the low-frequency noise in high-temperature radio frequency (rf) superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) cooled in static magnetic fields. At 77 K, the noise of different thin-film YB2C3O7−x washer rf SQUIDs was measured in static magnetic fields up to 55 μT. The SQUID inductances ranged from 150 to 300 pH. The measured low-frequency flux noise of the SQUIDs SΦ1/2 at 1 Hz was between 70 and 350 μΦ0/√Hz, and in terms of magnetic field noise SB1/2 between 120 and 1100 fT/√Hz. The low-frequency noise of all devices at 1 Hz showed no significant increase for all applied static fields.
We have fabricated arrays of High-Tc Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) with randomly distributed loop sizes as sensitive detectors for Radio Frequency (RF) waves. These subwavelength size devices known as Superconducting Quantum Interference Filters (SQIFs) detect the magnetic component of the electromagnetic field. We used a scalable ion irradiation technique to pattern the circuits and engineer the Josephson junctions needed to make SQUIDs. Here, we report on a 300 SQUID series array with the loop area ranging from 6 to 60 μm2, folded in a meander line covering a 3.5 mm × 120 μm substrate area, made out of a 150 nm thick YBa2Cu3O7 film. Operating at a temperature of T = 66 K in an unshielded magnetic environment under low DC bias current (I = 60 μA) and a DC magnetic field (B = 3 μT), this SQIF can detect a magnetic field of a few picoteslas at a frequency of 1.125 GHz, which corresponds to a sensitivity of a few hundreds of fT/Hz and shows a linear response over 7 decades in RF power. This work is a promising approach for the realization of low dissipative subwavelength gigahertz magnetometers.
Superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) is a sensitive detector of magnetic flux signals. Up to now, the main application of SQUIDs has been measurements of magnetic flux signals in the frequency range from near DC to several MHz. Recently, cryogenic low-noise radio-frequency (RF) amplifiers based on DC SQUID are under development aiming to detect RF signals with sensitivity approaching quantum limit. In this paper, we review the recent progress of cryogenic low-noise RF amplifiers based on SQUID technology.
This thesis describes a multiplexer of Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) with low-noise, ultra-low power dissipation, and great scalability. The multiplexer circuit measures the magnetic flux in a large number of unshunted rf SQUIDs by coupling each SQUID to a superconducting microwave resonator tuned to a unique resonance frequency and driving the resonators from a common feedline. A superposition of microwave tones measures each SQUID simultaneously using only two coaxial cables between the cryogenic device and room temperature. This multiplexer will enable the instrumentation of arrays with hundreds of thousands of low-temperature detectors for new applications in cosmology, materials analysis, and nuclear non-proliferation.\nThe driving application of the Microwave SQUID Multiplexer is the readout of large arrays of superconducting transition-edge sensors, by some figures of merit the most sensitive detectors of electromagnetic signals over a span of more than nine orders of magnitude in energy, from 40 GHz microwaves to 200 keV gamma rays. Modern transition-edge sensors have noise-equivalent power as low as 10-20 W / [square root] Hz and energy resolution as good as 2 eV at 6 keV. These per-pixel sensitivities approach theoretical limits set by the underlying signals, motivating a rapid increase in pixel count to access new science. Compelling applications, like the non-destructive assay of nuclear material for treaty verification or the search for primordial gravity waves from inflation use arrays of these detectors to increase collection area or tile a focal plane.\nWe developed three generations of SQUID multiplexers, optimizing the first for flux noise (0.17 mu Phi0 / [square root] Hz) the second for input current noise (19 pA / [square root] Hz) and the last for practical multiplexing of large arrays of cosmic microwave background polarimeters based on transition-edge sensors. Using the last design we demonstrated multiplexed readout of prototype polarimeters with the performance required for the future development of a large-scale astronomical instrument.
We have fabricated and tested thin film, niobium edge junction, double transformer, dc superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUID’s) that were stable under room-temperature storage and thermal cycling and that had very good noise performance. The input inductance, approximately 1.7 μH, was large enough to facilitate good matching to many experiments. When the SQUID was operated as a small-signal amplifier, the minimum detectable energy per unit bandwidth (Se) was 5×10−33 J/Hz at 100 kHz, referred to the SQUID loop (uncoupled). The minimum detectable energy per unit bandwidth was 1.8×10−31 J/Hz at 100 kHz, referred to the input coil. The SQUID’s had good characteristics for flux-locked operation since the small signal Se was low over a substantial range of bias current and magnetic flux. For operation in a flux-locked feedback circuit, Se was 6×10−32 J/Hz at 1 kHz.