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European Conference on Optical Communication

Superconductor-light interactions

Daniel B. Ostrowsky

Published Sep 11, 1988• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

The author discusses superconductor-light interactions. After a brief introduction to the theory of superconductivity concentrates on aspects of particular interest to optical scientists. From the theoretical point of view the coherence of the superconductor wave function leads to interference effects. From an experimental point of view, various possibilities exist for optically controlling, and even creating, devices such as switches and Josephson junctions. The author's objective is to present rapidly the theoretical background of superconductivity and light-superconductor interactions and go on to discuss various related experiments and devices.

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The author discusses superconductor-light interactions. After a brief introduction to the theory of superconductivity concentrates on aspects of particular interest to optical scientists. From the theoretical point of view the coherence of the superconductor wave function leads to interference effects. From an experimental point of view, various possibilities exist for optically controlling, and even creating, devices such as switches and Josephson junctions. The author's objective is to present rapidly the theoretical background of superconductivity and light-superconductor interactions and go on to discuss various related experiments and devices.
Good order is the foundation of all good things. E. Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France , 1790 Josephson effect Superconductivity: A crash course The transition from the theoretical description of hypothetical building blocks of a quantum coherent device to something which can be actually fabricated and controlled is made much easier by the existence of superconductivity . This phenomenon, roughly speaking, allows a macroscopic quantum coherent flow of electrons in a sufficiently cold piece of an appropriate material by establishing a specific long-range order among them. Due to this one can, for example, use macroscopically different states of a superconductor as quantum states of a qubit, with the obvious advantage over “microscopically quantum” systems (like actual atoms) from the point of view of control, measurement and, last but not least, fabrication of structures with the desired parameters and on the desired scale. The phenomenon of superconductivity – the history of its discovery, experimental manifestations, theoretical explanation, open questions, relevance to other branches of physics, and technological applications – requires a thorough treatment, which can be found in any number of books. For our purposes Tinkham (2004) will provide more than sufficient background. We will not wander into the field of exotic/high-temperature superconductors for two simple reasons: the quantum coherent behaviour of the kind we need to realize qubits or other quantum coherent devices has not yet been properly and/or routinely achieved in these systems; and the fabrication of such devices is not yet reliable enough or even feasible.
Superconducting circuits [1-11] based on Josephson junctions exhibit macroscopic quantum coherence and can behave like artificial atoms. Recent technological advances have made it possible to implement atomic-physics and quantum-optics experiments on a chip using these artificial atoms. This pedagogical talk presents a brief introduction to this rapidly advancing field. We not only discuss phenomena analogous to those in atomic physics and quantum optics with natural atoms, but also highlight those not occurring in natural atoms.
The Josephson junction is a device and constructed by separating two superconductors with an insulating barrier, which is thin enough so that super-electrons or Cooper pairs, composed of two electrons with opposite momenta and spins, formed by the electron-phonon interaction, and described as probability waves, can quantummechanically tunnel through the barrier and cause superposition and interferences. Due to the quantum e↵ect, a Josephson junction can generate and sustain an indefinitely long direct electric current or potential di↵erence, which becomes alternating one when an external voltage is applied. This paper investigates the Josephson pulse including its generation, property, and control. The results obtained from this study indicate that perturbations of the superconductors can generate strong superconducting pulses in the Josephson junction. The electric potential and field in the barrier oscillate when the two superconductors have di↵erent physical properties including the number densities of super-electrons, the phases of superconductors, and their rates of variations. The oscillations can be harmonic, combined, and purely pulse-like. The strength of the pulse increases with the di↵erences in the rates of densities and phases between the two superconductors. The pulse can be stronger in strength and narrower in width when one superconductor has lower density but higher rates of density and phase than another superconductor. Light or electromagnetic waves can perturb the superconductivities of superconductors and hence can be applied to control the pulses of Josephson junctions.
In this dissertation, we study a novel class of laser devices, referred to as half-Josephson lasers (HJL). Here, lasing at half the Josephson frequency is induced by a parametric instability, resulting from an oscillating supercurrent flowing through a Josephson junction that contains quantum emitters. The device combines the electronic coherence of superconductivity with the optical coherence of lasers, resulting in a phase lock between the optical phase and the superconducting phase difference across the junction. Apart from the introductory first chapter, this dissertation consists of two parts. In the first part, the essentials of HJL devices are investigated. First, we study a model containing a Josephson junction with a single quantum emitter. Spontaneous switchings in the quantum emitter lead to decoherence of the laser. After this, a general HJL model is derived for the case of many quantum emitters driving the laser mode. Here, small fluctuations in the laser lead to a broad background in the laser spectrum. Large fluctuations, occurring on exponentially long timescales, cause decoherence. In the second part of the dissertation, two possible applications of the HJL are investigated, both exploiting the phase lock. First, a well-known optical feedback technique is found to lead to significant stabilization of fluctuations in the bias voltage of the HJL, which cause drift of the optical and superconducting phases. After this, a HJL device is proposed based on the Superconducting Quantum Interference Device. In this `light-superconducting interference device’ (LSID), magnetic fields can be used to manipulate the laser light. The LSID is also shown to facilitate multimode lasing.
This review covers the experimental and theoretical progress over the last 15 years in the study of systems of interacting Josephson junctions. Such systems are of interest for device applications and for investigations of nonequilibrium phenomena in superconductors. In the description of coupled Josephson elements the emphasis is on the "physics" involved in a number of interaction mechanisms and not so much on the technical problems encountered in the construction of arrays of coupled juntions.