Properties of weak links between two superconductors, or Josephson junctions, make them interesting for fundamental physics research. Since their discovery over four decades ago, they have provided a unique way to study the behavior of the superconducting quantum phase. More recently, ultra small, or mesoscopic, Josephson junctions with substantial single Cooper pair charging energy have gained interest due to their behavior as macroscopic quantum objects. In addition to the theoretical interest, Josephson junctions can be used as active elements in circuit applications. Particularly, in this Thesis we study two different devices. We develop the required theoretical treatments, derive device properties, and compare the results with experimental data. The first application is a Josephson voltage standard based on externally damped Superconductor - Insulator - Superconductor junctions. It consists of an array of large Josephson junctions connected in series and irradiated with a 70 GHz microwave signal. Phase locking the Josephson dynamics into the signal leads to the quantization of the voltage. This is utilized in metrology. We introduce a new circuit solution based on frequency dependent damping of the junctions. Optimization and some designs for practical arrays are presented. The purpose is to find such a design that the array is fast, has low power consumption and is as stable as possible. Arrays able to generate DC voltages of order 1 volt with metrological accuracy are demonstrated experimentally and their applicability in AC voltage calibrations is analyzed. The second application is the Bloch Oscillating Transistor (BOT). The BOT is based on controlling the Cooper pair current in an ultra small Josephson junction by means of quasiparticles tunneling through a normal junction. As part of the thesis work, the principle of operation is first demonstrated computationally. The model is then refined to yield quantitative predictions of the characteristics. Finally, an analytic theory for the device is developed and the properties as an amplifier are derived.
We used the band structure of a mesoscopic Josephson junction to construct low-noise amplifiers. By taking advantage of the quantum dynamics of a Josephson junction, i.e., the interplay of interlevel transitions and the Coulomb blockade of Cooper pairs, we created transistor-like devices, Bloch oscillating transistors, with considerable current gain and high-input impedance. In these transistors, the correlated supercurrent of Cooper pairs is controlled by a small base current made up of single electrons. Our devices reached current and power gains on the order of 30 and 5, respectively. The noise temperature was estimated to be around 1 kelvin, but noise temperatures of less than 0.1 kelvin can be realistically achieved. These devices provide quantum-electronic building blocks that will be useful at low temperatures in low-noise circuit applications with an intermediate impedance level.
This thesis is a compilation of several works in the area of condensed matter physics, and with devices based on superconducting Josephson junctions (JJ) as the common denominator for the presented projects apart from the work on diffusive systems. Microwave measurements were conducted on a Superconducting Cooper pair transistor to explore its current-phase relationship. Measurements on a JJ-based qubit coupled to a LC resonator revealed the vibronic transitions obeying the Franck-Condon principle. The main body of the thesis is the work done on the Bloch Oscillating Transistor (BOT), an ultra low noise quantum amplifier. In the present work, we investigated the dynamics of the BOT near the bifurcation threshold as well as implemented differential BOTs to check its capability to reject common mode signals. To account for our studies of quantum features in mesoscopic systems other than JJs, we performed an experiment similar to the Hanbury-Brown and Twiss interferometry in optics. For this mesoscopic interference experiment we selected a multiterminal diffusive system. We developed a low temperature noise measurement scheme to study current-current correlations in the GHz frequency range. In our experiments we found a small positive HBT exchange correction factor in the non-interacting limit at low bias voltage in the presence of quantum interference. We found negative exchange correction factor in the hot electron case for similar structures, which agrees well with the theory. Altogether, our experiments demonstrated the theoretically predicted HBT exchange effects in non-interacting and interacting regime of electron transport in a diffusive mesoscopic system.
Bloch oscillations predicted to occur in current-biased single Josephson junctions have eluded direct observation up to now. Here, we demonstrate similar Bloch oscillations in a slightly richer Josephson circuit, the quantronium. The quantronium is a Bloch transistor with two small junctions in series, defining an island, in parallel with a larger junction. In the ground state, the microwave impedance of the device is modulated periodically with the charge on the gate capacitor coupled to the transistor island. When a current flows across this capacitor, the impedance modulation occurs at the Bloch frequency , which yields Bloch sidebands in the spectrum of a reflected continuous microwave signal. We have measured this spectrum, and compared it to predictions based on a simple model for the circuit. We discuss the interest of this experiment for metrology and for mesoscopic physics.
We propose a superconducting circuit based on the Bloch transistor, a quantum device consisting of two small-capacitance Josephson junctions, connected in series and having a small superconducting island in between. This device is driven by two dc electrical sources controlling Josephson oscillations of frequency
fJ=2eVJ/h, related to the average transistor voltage
VJ, and Bloch oscillations of frequency
fB=IB/2e, related to the average current
IB injected into the transistor island. We show that due to the Bloch transistor properties, these two types of oscillations are coupled and can mutually phase-lock, i.e.,
fJ=fB. This leads to the formation of a current step on the current-voltage curve at
IB=2efJ, which is similar to the dual Shapiro step, appearing under microwave irradiation of frequency
f on the current-voltage curve of a small Josephson Junction at current
I=2ef. Moreover, the Bloch transistor transconductance
IB/VJ takes the fundamental value of
1/RQ, where
RQ=h/4e2 is the resistance quantum. The obtained results pave the way to an alternative quantum standard of resistance, based on the superconducting circuit and operating without applying a strong magnetic field.