Superconducting Material Diagnostics using a Scanning Near-Field Microwave Microscope

We have developed scanning near-field microwave microscopes which can image electrodynamic properties of superconducting materials on length scales down to about 2 $\mu$m. The microscopes are capable of quantitative imaging of sheet resistance of thin films, and surface topography. We demonstrate the utility of the microscopes through images of the sheet resistance of a YBa2Cu3O7-d thin film wafer, images of bulk Nb surfaces, and spatially resolved measurements of Tc of a YBa2Cu3O7-d thin film. We also discuss some of the limitations of the microscope and conclude with a summary of its present capabilities.Comment: 6 pages with 9 figures, Proceedings of the Applied Superconductivity Conference 199

Microwave amplification with nanomechanical resonators

Sensitive measurement of electrical signals is at the heart of modern science and technology. According to quantum mechanics, any detector or amplifier is required to add a certain amount of noise to the signal, equaling at best the energy of quantum fluctuations. The quantum limit of added noise has nearly been reached with superconducting devices which take advantage of nonlinearities in Josephson junctions. Here, we introduce a new paradigm of amplification of microwave signals with the help of a mechanical oscillator. By relying on the radiation pressure force on a nanomechanical resonator, we provide an experimental demonstration and an analytical description of how the injection of microwaves induces coherent stimulated emission and signal amplification. This scheme, based on two linear oscillators, has the advantage of being conceptually and practically simpler than the Josephson junction devices, and, at the same time, has a high potential to reach quantum limited operation. With a measured signal amplification of 25 decibels and the addition of 20 quanta of noise, we anticipate near quantum-limited mechanical microwave amplification is feasible in various applications involving integrated electrical circuits.Comment: Main text + supplementary information. 14 pages, 3 figures (main text), 18 pages, 6 figures (supplementary information

Microstrip Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices for Quantum Information Science

Quantum-limited amplification in the microwave frequency range is of both practical and fundamental importance. The weak signals corresponding to single microwave photons require substantial amplification to resolve. When probing quantum excitations of the electromagnetic field, the substantial noise produced by standard amplifiers dominates the signal, therefore, several averages must be accumulated to achieve even a modest signal-to-noise ratio. Even worse, the back-action on the system due to amplifier noise can hasten the decay of the quantum state. In recent years, low-noise microwave-frequency amplification has been advancing rapidly and one field that would benefit greatly from this is circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED). The development of circuit quantum electrodynamics---which implements techniques of quantum optics at microwave frequencies---has led to revolutionary progress in the field of quantum information science. cQED employs quantum bits (qubits) and superconducting microwave resonators in place of the atoms and cavities used in quantum optics permitting preparation and control of low energy photon states in macroscopic superconducting circuits at millikelvin temperatures. We have developed a microstrip superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) amplifier (MSA) to provide the first stage of amplification for these systems. Employing sub-micron Josephson tunnel junctions for enhanced gain, these MSAs operate at microwave frequencies and are optimized to perform with near quantum-limited noise characteristics. Our MSA is utilized as the first stage of amplification to probe the dynamics of a SQUID oscillator. The SQUID oscillator is a flux-tunable microwave resonator formed by a capacitively shunted dc SQUID. Josephson plasma oscillations are induced by pulsed microwave excitations at the resonant frequency of the oscillator. Once pulsed, decaying plasma oscillations are observed in the time domain. By measuring with pulse amplitudes approaching the critical current of the SQUID, it is possible to probe the free evolution of a highly nonlinear oscillator

Silicon Germanium BiCMOS Integrated Circuits for Scalable Cryogenic Sensing Applications

This dissertation is focused on an investigation of BiCMOS cryogenic low noise amplifiers (LNAs) based on Silicon-germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) for simultaneous low noise and low power design and also taking advantage of CMOS circuitry for adding flexibility to the LNA design. Cryogenic LNAs\u27 scalability challenges are discussed and addressed in the dissertation. To achieve that, first, HBTs of three state-of-the-art technologies are characterized and modeled at cryogenic temperature. It is shown that SiGe HBT provides a promising compromise of noise temperature, power consumption, and bandwidth. Moreover, a scalable on-chip approach is proposed and verified for biasing of SiGe HBTs based LNAs. Finally, the first cryogenic re-configurable LNA is designed, implemented, and measured

Effects of the environment on quantum systems: decoherence, bound states and high impedance in superconducting circuits

Superconducting circuits in the quantum regime represent a viable platform for microwave quantum optics, quantum simulations and quantum computing. In the last two decades, a large effort brought this architecture from an academic curiosity to concrete technology.\ua0 In this thesis, we study the effects of the environment on superconducting circuits. We consider mainly two typologies of the environment. On one hand, we study the classical baths inevitably coupled to the circuits, in particular the substrate where they are fabricated and the highly attenuated coaxial lines used for controlling them, which are the main sources for decoherence. On the other hand, we study structured electromagnetic environments that shape the density of states for the circuits, modifying their energy structure and their excitation properties.\ua0\ua0 Defects on the substrate mechanically and electrically coupled to superconducting circuits, behave as a bath of two-level systems. We investigate the effects of the bath on a qubit fabricated on silicon. From a time trace with more than 2000 measurements of T1 and T2 (every 3 min for 60 h), we statistically infer a Lorentzian resonance signature of the bath. Moreover, measuring the residual population of the first excited state of the qubit, and tuning the photonic population in the line, we assess the thermal state of the bath, measuring a temperature of 56 mK. Furthermore, we investigate the mechanical coupling of the bath, saturating its state, strongly pumping neighbouring modes in a high finesse mechanical resonator. On a piezoelectric substrate, the travelling phonons, carry an electric component together with a lattice deformation. Therefore, superconducting circuits can be coupled to a phononic waveguide through which they release part of their energy. We design, fabricate and measure superconducting resonators on gallium arsenide, demonstrating the electromechanical coupling as the main source of decoherence.\ua0Concentrating on the effects of the photonic bath in the coaxial line, we design a qubit with a very large coupling to this bath compared to the bath of two-level fluctuators. In this limit, the scattering of a coherent photon by the qubit linearly depends on the photonic bath population. In this regime, the qubit can be used as a primary thermometer; we measured injected calibrated noise and the photon occupation of our input lines at different temperatures.\ua0 Finally, we implemented a slow-waveguide made of a linear chain of high impedance resonators. The excitation of two transmon qubits coupled to the waveguide is dressed with a photonic component, generating the hybrid excitation of atom-photon bound state. We spectroscopically investigated the first and second excitation subspaces of the system, and we demonstrated full frequency and time domain control, of these bound states. These results may help to improve the performance of superconducting circuits and their setup. Moreover, we hope that our experiment can provide tools for quantum thermodynamics and quantum simulation

Low Power Superconducting Microwave Applications and Microwave Microscopy

We briefly review some non-accelerator high-frequency applications of superconductors. These include the use of high-Tc superconductors in front-end band-pass filters in cellular telephone base stations, the High Temperature Superconductor Space Experiment, and high-speed digital electronics. We also present an overview of our work on a novel form of near-field scanning microscopy at microwave frequencies. This form of microscopy can be used to investigate the microwave properties of metals and dielectrics on length scales as small as 1 mm. With this microscope we have demonstrated quantitative imaging of sheet resistance and topography at microwave frequencies. An examination of the local microwave response of the surface of a heat-treated bulk Nb sample is also presented.Comment: 11 pages, including 6 figures. Presented at the Eight Workshop on RF Superconductivity. To appear in Particle Accelerator