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AIP conference proceedings

Random telegraphic voltage noise due to thermal bi-stability in a superconducting weak link

Sourav Biswas, Nikhil Kumar, Clemens B. Winkelmann, H. Courtois, Anjan Kumar Gupta

Published Jan 1, 2016• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We investigated the random telegraphic voltage noise signal in the hysteretic bi-stable state of a superconducting weak link device. Fluctuation induced random switching between zero voltage state and non-zero-voltage state gives rise to a random telegraphic voltage signal in time domain. This telegraphic noise is used to find the mean lifetime of each of the two states. The mean life time in the zero voltage state is found to decrease with increasing bias current while that of resistive state increases and thus the two cross at certain bias current. We qualitatively discuss this observed switching behavior as arising from the bi-stable nature.

DOI
10.1063/1.4948107

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We investigated the random telegraphic voltage noise signal in the hysteretic bi-stable state of a superconducting weak link device. Fluctuation induced random switching between zero voltage state and non-zero-voltage state gives rise to a random telegraphic voltage signal in time domain. This telegraphic noise is used to find the mean lifetime of each of the two states. The mean life time in the zero voltage state is found to decrease with increasing bias current while that of resistive state increases and thus the two cross at certain bias current. We qualitatively discuss this observed switching behavior as arising from the bi-stable nature.
Superconducting weak link (WL), acting as a Josephson junction (JJ), is one of the widely used elements in superconductor science and quantum circuits. A hysteretic JJ with robust switching between its superconducting and resistive state is an excellent candidate for single-photon detection. However, the ubiquitous fluctuations in the junction strongly influence the stability of the states and, thus, the transition from one to the other. Here, we present an experimental study of switching statistics of critical and retrapping currents of a JJ based on niobium WL in its hysteretic regime. The mean lifetimes of the two metastable states, namely, the zero-voltage superconducting state and finite-voltage resistive state, are estimated from the distributions. Further, close to the hysteresis crossover temperature, observed telegraphic noise in the time domain due to random switching between the states provides their lifetimes directly. We present a thermal model introducing a double-well (bistable) feature with an intriguing quantity with respect to the devices’ temperature states. The effects of temperature fluctuations on the stability of the states are shown. We discuss our results toward further improvement of the efficiency of superconducting WL or nanowire single-photon detectors.
Low-frequency noise in a hysteric rf superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) originating from fluctuations of critical current of a weak link is considered. Such noise can be due to trapping-detrapping processes within the tunnel barrier or to the presence of structural defects with internal degrees of freedom in the surrounding of the weak link. The defects can switch between two (or more) metastable states due to interaction with the thermal bath. On the other hand, elastic (and electric) fields created by defects act upon the critical current of the weak link inducing its fluctuations in time. Such noise is most important for high-Tc SQUIDs at high enough temperatures when defects are effectively interacting with the thermal bath. The dependencies of the intensity and statistics of flicker noise on the SQUID’s parameters and operating regime are analyzed. It is shown that higher correlation functions of output voltage at a given driving current can provide some information on the mechanism of 1/f noise in rf SQUIDs.
The quantum phase-coherent behavior of superconducting weak links (WLs) is often quenched in the finite voltage state, due to the heat dissipation and related thermal hysteresis. The latter can be reduced by improving heat evacuation and/or by lowering the critical current so a phase-dynamic regime is obtained, albeit over a narrow bias-current and temperature range. Here we demonstrate that an inductive shunt with well-chosen parameters introduces unexpected nonlinear dynamics that destabilize an otherwise stable fixed point in the dissipative branch. This leads to a nonhysteretic behavior with large voltage oscillations in intrinsically hysteretic WL-based micron-size superconducting quantum interference devices. A dynamic thermal model quantitatively describes our observations and further allows us to elaborate on the optimal shunting conditions.
The current noise at the output of a microcalorimeter with a voltage biased superconducting transition edge thermometer is studied in detail. In addition to the two well-known noise sources: thermal fluctuation noise from the heat link to the bath and Johnson noise from the resistive thermometer, a third noise source strongly correlated with the steepness of the thermometer is required to fit the measured noise spectra. Thermal fluctuation noise, originating in the thermometer itself, fully explains the additional noise. A simple model provides quantitative agreement between the observed and calculated noise spectra for all bias points in the superconducting transition.
We present a detailed analysis of the fundamental noise sources in superconducting transition-edge sensors (TESs), ac voltage biased at MHz frequencies and treated as superconducting weak links. We have studied the noise in the resistive transition as a function of bath temperature of several detectors with different normal resistances and geometries. We show that the "excess" noise, typically observed in the TES electrical bandwidth, can be explained by the equilibrium Johnson noise of the quasiparticles generated within the weak link. The fluctuations at the Josephson frequency and higher harmonics contribute significantly to the measured voltage noise at the detector bandwidth through the nonlinear response of the weak link with a sinusoidal current-phase relation.
We consider a superconducting loop with two weak links that encloses a magnetic flux. The weak links are unequal and are treated as Josephson junctions with non-sinusoidal phase dependence. We devise a model that takes into account the fluctuation of the critical currents, due to the fluctuations of the order parameter in the weak links. These fluctuations are important near the onset of superconductivity; in this regime they may significantly weaken and eventually disconnect the superconducting loop. As a consequence of these fluctuations and of the resistive noise in the junctions, the average dc voltage does not vanish. Our model can be easily extended to provide a qualitative description of a recent experiment.