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IEEE International Superconductive Electronics Conference (ISEC)

Remote Location of Superconducting Josephson Junction in Planar Antennas for Improved THz Detection

Eldad Holdengreber, Moshe Mizrahi, S. E. Schacham, Eliyahu Farber

Published Jul 1, 2019• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Detection of THz radiation can be significantly simplified using a detection system based on Superconducting Josephson junctions. Rather than operating extremely sophisticated conventional electronic equipment, the intensity and frequency can be derived from the Shapiro current steps. However, the detection efficiency is extremely sensitive to impedance mismatch between the antenna and the junction. In our proposed configuration, we displace the junction from the antenna center and placed it between the ends of two matching strips. Extensive simulations of this structure, based on theoretical analysis, show that with proper optimization of strip dimensions, high impedance matching can be obtained for the frequency range of around 265 GHz.

DOI
10.1109/isec46533.2019.8990943

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Detection of THz radiation can be significantly simplified using a detection system based on Superconducting Josephson junctions. Rather than operating extremely sophisticated conventional electronic equipment, the intensity and frequency can be derived from the Shapiro current steps. However, the detection efficiency is extremely sensitive to impedance mismatch between the antenna and the junction. In our proposed configuration, we displace the junction from the antenna center and placed it between the ends of two matching strips. Extensive simulations of this structure, based on theoretical analysis, show that with proper optimization of strip dimensions, high impedance matching can be obtained for the frequency range of around 265 GHz.
Superconducting Josephson junctions have major advantages as detectors of millimeter wave radiation. Frequency of the radiation can be easily derived from the Shapiro steps of the current-voltage characteristics. However, system performance is highly sensitive to impedance mismatch between the antenna and the junction; therefore, optimization is essential. We analyzed and implemented an improved antenna structure, in which the junction is displaced from the antenna center and placed between the ends of two matching strips. Based on theoretical analysis and advanced electromagnetic simulations, we optimized strip dimensions, which affect both the detection magnitude and the frequency of the reflection coefficient dip. Accordingly, two Au bow-tie antennas with different matching strip widths were fabricated. Superconducting Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide (YBCO) thin films were deposited exactly at the bicrystal substrate misorientation points, forming Josephson junctions at the ends of two matching strips. We found a very high correlation between the simulations and the response to Radio Frequency (RF) radiation in the range of 145–165 GHz. Experimental results agree extremely well with the design, showing best performance of both antennas around the frequency for which impedance matching was derived.
We present, in this work, a new thin-film antenna-coupled high-temperature superconducting (HTS) Josephson-junction terahertz (THz) mixer that demonstrates superior performance at frequencies around 0.34 THz. A novel dual-meander-slot thin-film antenna is designed to significantly improve the antenna-junction impedance matching and thus more efficient coupling of the THz signal power. Theoretical and experimental investigations are carried out to evaluate the mixer performance. This mixer can be applied to the sensitive THz wireless receivers.
A high temperature superconducting YBa2Cu3Oy array of five Josephson junctions designed with additional coupling lines has been developed to demonstrate the effects of frequency locking and impedance matching for applications such as oscillators, mixers, and detectors. The Josephson self-radiation power was directly detected by a superheterodyne receiver, and Shapiro steps were also measured. The Josephson self-radiation properties reveal good quality of phase locking and microwave coupling with external circuits. The maximum self-radiation power of our array is about 50 pW which is several ten times higher than that of a single Josephson junction, and its peak point exactly satisfies the Josephson current-voltage relation. The Shapiro-step measurements show that the behavior of current-voltage curve depends on the effective inductance of coupling lines which affects the total impedance of Josephson junction array and microwave coupling. The Josephson oscillation frequency was obtained up to about 880 GHz which is 73% of the maximum available frequency calculated from the characteristic voltage of the Josephson junctions. Experimental results show that this type of Josephson junction array can improve the Josephson self-radiation power and increase the maximum detectable frequency.
Using high temperature superconducting thin films, we designed and fabricated Josephson junctions associated with a log-periodic toothed trapezoid antenna. Microwave self-radiation from the Josephson junction was measured by using both a superheterodyne receiver at the center frequency of 22 GHz and an external waveguide system. In the case of junction incorporated with an antenna structure, there was a significant increase of power by an order of magnitude with respect to a junction without antenna. Under the 22 GHz irradiation, we observed distinctive Shapiro steps in the I-V measurement, which allowed as estimating the received power of the junction. The received power of the junction with an antenna exhibited as a large increase as that of a self-radiation. Our results indicate that a Josephson junction with an antenna is very effective for the microwave coupling between Josephson junction and free space. The combined device can be used either for a high power microwave source or for a high sensitive sensor.
Josephson cantilevers, based on high temperature superconducting Josephson junctions, are versatile detectors for the measurement of frequency and power of microwave and terahertz radiation. A Josephson cantilever consists of at least one Josephson junction, which is equipped with an antenna structure for better coupling. The Josephson junctions, made from the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7, are deployed on LaAIO3or MgO bicrystal substrates. Four feedlines are used to carry out four-terminal sensing. The THz microscope was developed, to allow three dimensional measurements [1]. In this measurement setup, the Josephson cantilever is mounted on a 15 × 15 × 15 mm3positioning system inside a vacuum chamber. The Josephson cantilever is cooled by a cryocooler that allows operating temperatures down to 30 K. A triangular current is injected into the junction and the current-voltage characteristic is recorded at each spatial point. The frequency and the power of the external radiation can be determined from the recorded data by evaluating the occurring Shapiro steps using Hilbert spectroscopy [2]. When the Josephson cantilever is irradiated with more than one frequency at a time, it behaves as a frequency mixer, due to its nonlinear current-voltage characteristic. In this work, we investigated the mixing of 40 GHz and 762 GHz signals with the THz microscope.
In a quasi-optical system, the high temperature superconducting terahertz detector often suffers from a fundamental problem of low coupling efficiency with the terahertz signal, especially for the detector based on YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) bicrystal Josephson junction (JJ) due to a small normal-state resistance. Here, we developed a bowtie loaded meander antenna to enhance coupling efficiency. Differing from the conventional characterization confining on vector network analyzers, we applied three methods to evaluate the antenna, including the measurements of the maximal size of the first order Shapiro step under per incident power, the coupling efficiency between the antenna and the junction, and voltage responsivity. Furthermore, with simulation analysis, we propose that the inductive reactance of the YBCO bicrystal JJ is around 60 ohms under terahertz irradiation at 210 GHz, thus, the reactance is comparable as that of the antenna.