Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Transparency and coherence in rf SQUID metamaterials (Presentation Recording)

Steven M. Anlage

Published Oct 5, 2015• 0 citations

Abstract

We have developed active metamaterials based on macroscopic quantum effects capable of quickly tuning their electrical and magnetic responses over a wide frequency range. These metamaterials are based on superconducting elements to form low insertion loss, physically and electrically small, highly tunable structures for the next generation rf electronics. The meta-atoms are rf superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) that incorporate the Josephson effect. RF SQUIDs have an inductance which includes a contribution from the Josephson inductance of the junction. This inductance is strongly tunable with dc and rf magnetic fields and currents. The rf SQUID metamaterial is a richly nonlinear effective medium introducing qualitatively new macroscopic quantum phenomena into the metamaterials community, namely magnetic flux quantization and the Josephson effect. The coherence of the metamaterials is strongly sensitive to the environment and measurement conditions. The metamaterials also display a unique form of transparency whose development can be manipulated through multiple parametric dependences. Further features such as breathers, superradiance, and self-induced transparency, along with entry into the fully quantum limit, will yield qualitatively new metamaterial phenomena. This work is supported by the NSF-GOALI and OISE Programs through Grant No. ECCS-1158644 and the Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials (CNAM).

DOI: 10.1117/12.2187251

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