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Parametric effects in thin superconducting films

N. I. Glushchuk, Vitaly M. Dmitriev, V. V. Onishchenko

Published Aug 1, 1976• 0 citations
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Abstract

The possibilities of using the nonlinear properties of thin superconducting films in parametric devices were investigated. The region of parametric amplification was calculated for a regenerative amplifier-converter, and it was found to be bounded on the low-frequency side by the inequality ..omega.. > ..omega../sub cr/ and on the high side by the condition that the process is adiabatic ..omega.. much < (k/h)(T/sub c/ - T). The optimal amplifier operating conditions were found.

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The possibilities of using the nonlinear properties of thin superconducting films in parametric devices were investigated. The region of parametric amplification was calculated for a regenerative amplifier-converter, and it was found to be bounded on the low-frequency side by the inequality ..omega.. > ..omega../sub cr/ and on the high side by the condition that the process is adiabatic ..omega.. much < (k/h)(T/sub c/ - T). The optimal amplifier operating conditions were found.
A superconducting parametric amplifier is an electromagnetic wave amplifier with high-quality characteristics such as a wide bandwidth, an extremely low noise, and a high dynamic range. In this paper, we report on the estimations of a YBCO superconducting parametric amplifier characteristic. The YBCO thin films were deposited on an MgO substrate by a pulsed laser deposition method. Based on the measured YBCO thin film parameters, theoretical calculations were implemented for evaluations of kinetic inductance nonlinearities and parametric gains. The nonlinearity of the YBCO thin film was estimated to be stronger than a single crystal NbTiN thin film. It is indicated that the YBCO parametric amplifier has a potential to be realized the amplifier with the high parametric gain. It is also expected that it could be operated in the range of the high frequency band, at the high temperature, and low applied current.
Abstract Modern parametric amplifiers are based on lithographically produced superconducting thin-film planar transmission line structures. These paramps rely on resonant structures with embedded nonlinear elements to stimulate intermodulation with a stronger pump tone that gives rise to signal gain when certain conditions are satisfied. Such paramps have not yet been realised in superconducting 3D waveguide resonators. Possible applications of these devices include detector systems that are based on 3D waveguide such as dark matter detectors and quantum computers. Reported here are the results of an investigation of a 30.64 GHz series circular waveguide resonance machined from bulk niobium showing parametric gain of up to 2 dB in the presence of a stronger pump tone 10 kHz above in frequency. The gain is largest on abrupt jumps of the transmission spectra of the resonance, which may be a result of weak-link formation on the superconducting surfaces.
In this Master thesis, I present a theoretical description and experimental measurements of a tunable microwave resonator operated as a parametric amplifier. Superconducting parametric amplifiers have attracted great interest in recent years as it has been demonstrated that they can operate with a noise performance at the standard quantum limit. \nParametric amplification is achieved in the devices by modulating the electrical length of the resonator at twice the resonance frequency. The device measured in this thesis consists of a quarter-wavelength microwave resonator fabricated in a thin-film aluminum coplanar waveguide geometry. With a termination to ground through a Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID), the boundary condition of the resonator becomes sensitive to an applied magnetic field. This enables the tuning of the resonance frequencies, using a DC magnetic field, over a wide frequency range of 670MHz. Similarly, an AC magnetic field then allows for the modulation of the resonator electrical length at microwave frequencies. \nWe characterized the device by first measuring the DC tuning curves of the 2nd and 3rd harmonics of the resonator, around 4 GHz and 6 GHz respectively. We then studied parametric amplification in the device when the electrical length was modulated at approximately twice the resonance frequency of one of the modes. We scanned the pump frequency and pump power over a wide range to study the region in parameters which gives parametric gain. We performed an in-depth parameter sweep over this region, identifying pump parameters that provided maximum gain and maximum system noise improvements compared the following HEMT amplifier. \nWe find that the use of the parametric amplifier can improve the system noise temperature by more than 10 dB compared to a start-of-the-art commercial HEMT amplifier. This implies a performance near the standard quantum limit.
Parametric amplification and side-band oscillations have been observed using thin superconducting films at 7.2 GHz. The amplification and oscillations are associated with discontinuities in the pump power vs frequency response of the films and with slits cut into the films. When operated in a parametric mode, a net gain of 12 dB was achieved. The oscillations occur in symmetrical pairs about the pump at 1-MHz intervals and are very sensitive to an applied dc magnetic field of approximately 0.1 G.
It is known that the quality factor (selectivity) of superconducting resonators is limited by the physical properties of the superconductor or by the quality of fabrication. It was previously shown that the selective properties of such resonators can be greatly improved by using harmonics of the input signal. The possibility of using nonlinear effects in superconductors to improve the tuning properties of superconducting resonators is considered. This possibility lies in regenerative operation of the resonator by operating it with single-circuit parametric amplification.
We examine the DC and radio frequency (RF) response of superconducting transmission line resonators comprised of very thin NbTiN films, <12 nm in thickness, in the high-temperature limit, where the photon energy is less than the thermal energy. The resonant frequencies of these superconducting resonators show a significant nonlinear response as a function of RF input power, which can approach a frequency shift of Δf=−0.15% in a −20 dB span in the thinnest film. The strong nonlinear response allows these very thin film resonators to serve as high kinetic inductance parametric amplifiers.