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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

Bipolar Waveform Synthesis With an Optically Driven Josephson Arbitrary Waveform Synthesizer

Justus A. Brevik, Dahyeon Lee, Anna E. Fox, Yiwei Peng, Akim A. Babenko, Joe Charles Campbell, Paul D. Dresselhaus, Franklyn Quinlan, Samuel P. Benz

Published Apr 19, 2022• 13 citations
Publisher

Abstract

An array of Josephson junctions (JJs) was driven with photonically generated current pulses to synthesize a high-fidelity 1 kHz bipolar voltage waveform with a quantum-based amplitude that can be directly related to fundamental constants. A photodiode capable of producing high average photocurrent was used to generate large-amplitude current pulses that were ac-coupled to a JJ array. The resulting bipolar current pulses have enabled the first demonstration of quantum-based bipolar waveform synthesis with an optical drive. We measured the quantum locking range with respect to several operating parameters, including 1.2 mA with respect to a dc bias current applied to the array, confirming the robust synthesis of bipolar waveforms.

DOI
10.1109/tasc.2022.3167660

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An array of Josephson junctions (JJs) was driven with photonically generated current pulses to synthesize a high-fidelity 1 kHz bipolar voltage waveform with a quantum-based amplitude that can be directly related to fundamental constants. A photodiode capable of producing high average photocurrent was used to generate large-amplitude current pulses that were ac-coupled to a JJ array. The resulting bipolar current pulses have enabled the first demonstration of quantum-based bipolar waveform synthesis with an optical drive. We measured the quantum locking range with respect to several operating parameters, including 1.2 mA with respect to a dc bias current applied to the array, confirming the robust synthesis of bipolar waveforms.
Abstract We have successfully operated two Josephson junction arrays in parallel with photonically generated current pulses to achieve higher output voltages with our optical pulse drive setup. Passive optical power splitters divide each optical channel at room temperature in order to illuminate multiple cryogenic photodiodes at 4 K , located near the arrays. The balanced photodiode configurations bias the Josephson junctions with ternary current pulses to generate a 1 kHz bipolar sinusoidal voltage with a nominal root mean square amplitude of 85 mV . We determined a spurious free dynamic range and total harmonic distortion of 110.6 dBc and − 105.0 dB from the spectrum of the synthesized signal. Applying an additional dither current to each array individually yielded a quantum locking range of 0.4 mA and 0.6 mA . Furthermore, the quantum locked operation was confirmed to remain stable when the optical output power of the laser diodes and the DC bias of the Mach–Zehnder modulators were varied. A stability measurement of the output amplitude over more than half an hour confirmed sufficiently wide operating margins, further demonstrating a reliable optical Josephson arbitrary waveform synthesizer setup suitable for generating quantum-based waveform with high spectral purity traceable to fundamental constants. To our knowledge, this is the highest amplitude generated with optically driven Josephson junctions so far and the first successful proof of principle for parallelizing the optical pulse drive to achieve higher output voltages in the future.
The paper is about development of the lumped Josephson junction arrays (JJAs) for the generation of accurate quantum-based ac voltages. By using semiconductor pattern generators, it was possible to synthesize unipolar and bipolar waveforms with amplitudes of almost 10 mV and frequencies of up to 122 kHz. Higher harmonics and other unwanted noise signals were suppressed by -90 dBc. Because of the unique layout of our JJA, it was possible to connect the circuit directly to the ground, thereby eliminating common-mode signals
We describe the implementation of new commercial pulse-bias electronics that have enabled an improvement in the generation of quantum-accurate waveforms both with and without low-frequency compensation biases. We have used these electronics to apply a multilevel pulse bias to the Josephson arbitrary waveform synthesizer and have generated, for the first time, a quantum-accurate bipolar sinusoidal waveform without the use of a low-frequency compensation bias current. This uncompensated 1 kHz waveform was synthesized with an rms amplitude of 325 mV and maintained its quantum accuracy over a1.5 mA operating current range. The same technique and equipment was also used to synthesize a quantum-accurate 1 MHz sinusoid with a 1.2 mA operating margin. In addition, we have synthesized a compensated 1 kHz sinusoid with an rms amplitude of 1 V and a 2.7 mA operating margin.
A Josephson arbitrary waveform synthesizer (JAWS) has been developed in order to generate quantum-based ac voltage signals. The key component of this JAWS is a modified commercial 30-Gb/s pattern generator that can generate ternary patterns (containing the values 1, 0, and 1, resulting in bipolar pulses). The new pulse-drive electronics have been successfully tested by driving Josephson arrays with bipolar current pulses from 1 to 30 Gb/s in order to study their current-voltage characteristics and the spectra of the JAWS signals.
A quantum-accurate waveform with an rms output amplitude of 1 V has been synthesized for the first time. This fourfold increase in voltage over previous systems was achieved through developments and improvements in bias electronics, pulse-bias techniques, Josephson junction array circuit fabrication, and packaging. A recently described ac-coupled bipolar pulse-bias technique was used to bias a superconducting integrated circuit with 25 600 junctions, which are equally divided into four series-connected arrays, into the second quantum state. We describe these advancements and present the measured 1 V spectra for 2 Hz and 10 Hz sine waves that remained quantized over a 0.4 mA current range. We also demonstrate a 2 kHz sine wave produced with another bias technique that requires no compensation current and remains quantized at an rms voltage of 128 mV over a 1 mA current range. Increasing the clock frequency to 19 GHz also allowed us to achieve a maximum rms output voltage for a single array of 330 mV.
We describe a new generation of Josephson Arbitrary Waveform Synthesizers that generate programmable ac waveforms with an rms amplitude of 3 V and, at 1 kHz, have a quantum locking range greater than 1 rnA. This system has two chips with a total of 204 960 Josephson junctions (JJs) co-located on a cryocooler. To test for systematic errors, we phase-shift by 180° the waveform generated by half the JJs (102 480 JJs) to produce an approximate null. The measured residual of 51 nV rms implies a relative agreement of 3 parts in 108between the two halves of the system.