Single electron transistors with high quality superconducting niobium islands

Deep submicron Al-AlOx-Nb tunnel junctions and single electron transistors with niobium islands were fabricated by electron beam gun shadow evaporation. Using stencil masks consisting of the thermostable polymer polyethersulfone (PES) and germanium, high quality niobium patterns with good superconducting properties and a gap energy of up to 2Delta = 2.5 meV for the niobium were achieved. The I(U) characteristics of the transistors show special features due to tunneling of single Cooper pairs and significant gate modulation in both the superconducting and the normal state.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

On the entropy of plasmas described with regularized κ\kappa-distributions

In classical thermodynamics the entropy is an extensive quantity, i.e.\ the sum of the entropies of two subsystems in equilibrium with each other is equal to the entropy of the full system consisting of the two subsystems. The extensitivity of entropy has been questioned in the context of a theoretical foundation for the so-called $\kappa$-distributions, which describe plasma constituents with power-law velocity distributions. We demonstrate here, by employing the recently introduced {\it regularized $\kappa$-distributions}, that entropy can be defined as an extensive quantity even for such power-law-like distributions that truncate exponentially.Comment: Preprint accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Picosecond pump–probe and polarization techniques in supersonic molecular beams: Measurement of ultrafast vibrational-rotational dephasing and coherence

In the last few years, the time-resolved dynamics of collisionless intramolecular vibrational-energy redistribution (IVR) [1] has been probed [2] using picosecond excitation and fluorescence detection. By this method new information on IVR, coherence and photochemical changes (e.g., trans-cis isomerization) has been obtained. [2,3] However, in a number of cases the (early time) primary step following picosecond excitation could not be resolved simply because the time resolution was limited to ~50ps

Strong Coupling Theory of Two Level Atoms in Periodic Fields

We present a new convergent strong coupling expansion for two-level atoms in external periodic fields, free of secular terms. As a first application, we show that the coherent destruction of tunnelling is a third-order effect. We also present an exact treatment of the high-frequency region, and compare it with the theory of averaging. The qualitative frequency spectrum of the transition probability amplitude contains an effective Rabi frequency.Comment: 4 pages with 3 figure

Monolithic arrays of surface emitting laser NOR logic devices

Monolithic, cascadable, laser-logic-device arrays have been realized and characterized. The monolithic surface-emitting laser logic (SELL) device consists of an AlGaAs superlattice lasing around 780 nm connected to a heterojunction phototransistor (HPT) in parallel and a resistor in series. Arrays up to 8×8 have been fabricated, and 2×2 arrays show uniform characteristics. The optical logic output is switched off with 40 μW incident optical input

Monolithic arrays of surface emitting laser NOR logic devices

Monolithic, cascadable, laser-logic-device arrays have been realized and characterized. The monolithic surface-emitting laser logic (SELL) device consists of an AlGaAs superlattice lasing around 780 nm connected to a heterojunction phototransistor (HPT) in parallel and a resistor in series. Arrays up to 8×8 have been fabricated, and 2×2 arrays show uniform characteristics. The optical logic output is switched off with 40 μW incident optical input

Analysis of radiation-pressure induced mechanical oscillation of an optical microcavity

The theoretical work of V.B. Braginsky predicted that radiation pressure can couple the mechanical, mirror-eigenmodes of a Fabry-Perot resonator to it's optical modes, leading to a parametric oscillation instability. This regime is characterized by regenerative mechanical oscillation of the mechanical mirror eigenmodes. We have recently observed the excitation of mechanical modes in an ultra-high-Q optical microcavity. Here, we present a detailed experimental analysis of this effect and demonstrate that radiation pressure is the excitation mechanism of the observed mechanical oscillations

Direct picosecond time resolution of unimolecular reactions initiated by local mode excitation

The concept of local mode (LM) states [1] in large molecules raises the possibilty of inducing chemical reactions from a well-defined initial state (bond-selective chemistry). The results of linewidth and energy measurements in gases, [2(a)] and low temperature solids, [2(b)] however, indicate that the relaxation times for such high energy (> 15000 cm^-1) states can be extremely short, < 1ps. Because of the lack of direct time-resolved measurements, the following fundamental questions have not been unequivocally answered: What are the homogeneous linewidths of LM states and what are the rates of energy relaxation or reaction out of these states? Over the past five years we have made several attempts to observe the picosecond dynamics of LM states. Due to the inherent difficulties associated with making these measurements, such as the very small oscillator strength (σ < 10^-23 cm^2), an extremely sensitive probing technique becomes imperative

Superconducting Electrometer Based on the Resistively Shunted Bloch Transistor

We have fabricated the Bloch transistor shunted on-chip by a small-sized Cr resistor with Rs about 1 kOhm. The Bloch transistor normally consists of two small Josephson junctions connected in series, which in our case have been replaced by two superconducting interferometer loops, each with two junctions in parallel. A capacitively coupled gate is supplied to control the induced charge of the small intermediate electrode (island) of the transistor. The measured I-V curves show no hysteresis and correspond to the operation of a effective Josephson junction at the high-damping and strong-noise limits. The critical current of the system was found to be close to its nominal value, that is in accordance with the electromagnetic environment theory. The I-V curves were modulated by the gate with a period of e and a maximum swing of about 2 /mu_V. Such rather moderate modulation results from the Josephson-to- charging energies ratio, Ej/Ec about 9, in our sample being far from its optimum value of 0.3 up to 1.Comment: To be published in IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, June 199

Single-charge devices with ultrasmall Nb/AlOx/Nb trilayer Josephson junctions

Josephson junction transistors and 50-junction arrays with linear junction dimensions from 200 nm down to 70 nm were fabricated from standard Nb/AlOx/Nb trilayers. The fabrication process includes electron beam lithography, dry etching, anodization, and planarization by chemical-mechanical polishing. The samples were characterized at temperatures down to 25 mK. In general, all junctions are of high quality and their I-U characteristics show low leakage currents and high superconducting energy gap values of 1.35 meV. The characteristics of the transistors and arrays exhibit some features in the subgap area, associated with tunneling of Cooper pairs, quasiparticles and their combinations due to the redistribution of the bias voltage between the junctions. Total island capacitances of the transistor samples ranged from 1.5 fF to 4 fF, depending on the junction sizes. Devices made of junctions with linear dimensions below 100 nm by 100 nm demonstrate a remarkable single-electron behavior in both superconducting and normal state. We also investigated the area dependence of the junction capacitances for transistor and array samples.Comment: 19 pages incl. 2 tables and 11 figure