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IEEE Transactions on Magnetics

Josephson soliton oscillator arrays for SIS mixers

A. Davidson, Niels Grønbech‐Jensen, N. F. Pedersen

Published Mar 1, 1991• 15 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1109/20.133929

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Applied Physics Letters•Apr 20, 1992•7 citations
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 soliton oscillators integrated in a resonator consisting of two closely spaced coplanar superconducting microstrips have been investigated experimentally. Pairs of long 1-D Josephson junctions with a current density of about 1000 A/cm/sup 2/ were made using the Nb-AlO/sub x/-Nb trilayer technique. Different modes of half-wave resonances in the thin-film structure impose different magnetic field configurations at the boundaries of the junctions. The DC I-V characteristic shows zero-field steps with a number of resonator-induced steps. These structures are compared to RF-induced steps generated by phase-locking of the soliton motion to an external microwave source. The two different resonant configurations identified may be interpreted as a coupling to the microwave field at the end boundary and as a more homogeneous coupling distributed over the junction length.>
All-refractory material superconducting millimeter-wave oscillators have been designed and investigated experimentally with different superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixers integrated on the same chip. Tested structures include a flux-flow oscillator (FFO) based on a long Josephson junction, a coupling section, and an SIS detector with tuned out junction capacitance. Coupling sections were designed as multistep microstrip quarter-wave impedance transformers. All junctions have been fabricated on the basis of a high-quality trilayer Nb-AlO/sub x/-Nb process. Microwave oscillations in the frequency range 75-500 GHz have been detected experimentally. The level of delivered power was estimated from the pumped I-V curve of the strongly coupled single junction detector. Coupled power levels higher than 0.1 mu W at 256 GHz were achieved. A spectral linewidth of the FFO of less than 1 MHz has been estimated experimentally. The first attempt to create an integrated receiver based on an FFO and an SIS array mixer integrated on the same chip was made in the 2-mm wavelength band.>
In this study, a 150 GHz waveguide Josephson array oscillator was designed, fabricated, and evaluated as a local oscillator (LO) source for superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixer-based amplifiers. These amplifiers aim to reduce the power consumption of microwave amplifiers used in large-scale multi-pixel heterodyne receivers for radio astronomy and superconducting quantum computers. We fabricated a Josephson array oscillator of 11 Nb/Al–AlOx/Nb Josephson junctions with Cu shunt resistors, each of which is placed on the center of a half-wavelength microstrip line resonator. When the LO signal from the oscillator was introduced into the balanced SIS mixers via a waveguide, the oscillator successfully pumped four SIS mixers simultaneously, delivering a total estimated LO power of 0.22 µW at 146.7 GHz. The SIS mixers operated without a millimeter-wave isolator at an LO noise temperature of 4–6 K. These results indicate the Josephson array oscillator's potential as an LO source for SIS mixer-based amplifiers.
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.>
A 230-GHz subharmonically pumped waveguide mixer employing superconducting tunnel junctions has been developed. We present, in this paper, an experimental study of harmonic superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixing at 230 GHz, focusing mainly on its noise behavior. The mixer has a double-tuned waveguide structure and employs an array of four 1.7-/spl mu/m/sup 2/ Nb-AlOx-Nb SIS junctions in series, with /spl omega/R/sub n/C/sub j//spl sim/3 at 230 GHz. Harmonic quantum mixing occurred over an experimental frequency range of 205-235 GHz (local oscillator: 112.5-117.5 GHz), exhibiting corresponding double sideband noise temperatures of lower than 150 K, with a lowest value of 75 K at /spl sim/230 GHz. The measured mixer noise is believed to be the lowest yet reported for a mixer using subharmonic-pump configuration at this frequency. A phenomenon that we attribute to the third harmonic SIS mixing has also been observed.
Experiments are reported on a new geometry designed to couple long Josephson junction fluxon oscillators to a resonant cavity. The junctions were made with a niobium-aluminum oxide-niobium trilayer process with a critical-current density of around 1000 A/cm2. Various numbers of such junctions were incorporated directly as part of a coplanar strip half-wave resonator, with fundamental mode of about 34 GHz. Both the current density and oscillation frequency are higher than in previous experiments. Evidence for phase locking of multiple junctions is presented.