Form and width of spectral line of Josephson Flux-Flow oscillator

The behavior of a Josephson flux-flow oscillator in the presence of both bias current and magnetic field fluctuations has been studied. To derive the equation for slow phase dynamics in the limit of small noise intensity the Poincare method has been used. Both the form of spectral line and the linewidth of the flux-flow oscillator have been derived exactly on the basis of technique presented in the book of Malakhov, known limiting cases are considered, limits of their applicability are discussed and appearance of excess noise is explained. Good coincidence of theoretical description with experimental results has been demonstrated.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Josephson Flux Flow Oscillator: the Microscopic Tunneling Approach

We elaborate a theoretical description of large Josephson junctions which is based on the Werthamer's microscopic tunneling theory. The model naturally incorporates coupling of electromagnetic radiation to the tunnel currents and, therefore, is particularly suitable for description of the self-coupling effect in Josephson junction. In our numerical calculations we treat the arising integro-differential equation, which describes temporal evolution of the superconducting phase difference coupled to the electromagnetic field, by the Odintsov-Semenov-Zorin algorithm. This allows us to avoid evaluation of the time integrals at each time step while taking into account all the memory effects. To validate the obtained microscopic model of large Josephson junction we focus our attention on the Josephson flux flow oscillator. The proposed microscopic model of flux flow oscillator does not involve the phenomenological damping parameter, rather, the damping is taken into account naturally in the tunnel current amplitudes calculated at a given temperature. The theoretically calculated current-voltage characteristics is compared to our experimental results obtained for a set of fabricated flux flow oscillators of different lengths. Our theoretical calculation agrees well with the obtained experimental results, and, to our knowledge, is the first where theoretical description of Josephson flux flow oscillator is brought beyond the perturbed sine-Gordon equation.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

Phase locked 270-440 GHz local oscillator based on flux flow in long Josephson tunnel junctions

The combination of narrow linewidth and wide band tunability makes the Josephson flux flow oscillator (FFO) a perfect on-chip local oscillator for integrated sub-mm wave receivers for, e.g., spectral radio astronomy. The feasibility of phase locking the FFO to an external reference oscillator is demonstrated experimentally. A FFO linewidth as low as 1 Hz (determined by the resolution bandwidth of the spectrum analyzer) has been measured in the frequency range 270-440 GHz relative to a reference oscillator. This linewidth is far below the fundamental level given by shot and thermal noise of the free-running tunnel junction. The results of residual FFO phase noise measurements are also presented. Finally, we propose a single-chip fully superconductive receiver with two superconductor-insulator-superconductor mixers and an integrated phase-locked loop. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(00)01701-9]

A one-dimensional tunable magnetic metamaterial

We present experimental data on a one-dimensional superconducting metamaterial that is tunable over a broad frequency band. The basic building block of this magnetic thin-film medium is a single-junction (rf-) superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). Due to the nonlinear inductance of such an element, its resonance frequency is tunable in situ by applying a dc magnetic field. We demonstrate that this results in tunable effective parameters of our metamaterial consisting of 54 SQUIDs. In order to obtain the effective magnetic permeability from the measured data, we employ a technique that uses only the complex transmission coefficient S21

Long Josephson junctions with spatially inhomogeneous driving

The phase dynamics of a long Josephson junction with spatially inhomogeneously distributed bias current is considered for the case of a dense soliton chain (regime of the Flux Flow oscillator). To derive the analytical solution of the corresponding sine-Gordon equation the Poincare method has been used. In the range of the validity of the theory good coincidence between analytically derived and numerically computed current-voltage characteristics have been demonstrated for the simplest example of unitstep function distribution of bias current (unbiased tail). It is shown, that for the considered example of bias current distribution, there is an optimal length of unbiased tail that maximizes the amplitude of the main harmonic and minimizes the dynamical resistance (thus leading to reduction of a linewidth).Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

A quantitative investigation of the effect of a close-fitting superconducting shield on the coil-factor of a solenoid

Superconducting shields are commonly used to suppress external magnetic interference. We show, that an error of almost an order of magnitude can occur in the coil-factor in realistic configurations of the solenoid and the shield. The reason is that the coil-factor is determined by not only the geometry of the solenoid, but also the nearby magnetic environment. This has important consequences for many cryogenic experiments involving magnetic fields such as the determination of the parameters of Josephson junctions, as well as other superconducting devices. It is proposed to solve the problem by inserting a thin sheet of high-permeability material, and the result numerically tested.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, submitted to AP

Two-tone spectroscopy of a SQUID metamaterial in the nonlinear regime

Compact microwave resonantors made of superconducting rings containing Josephson junctions (SQUIDs) are attractive candidates for building frequency tunable metamaterials with low losses and pronounced nonlinear properties. We explore the nonlinearity of a SQUID metamaterial by performing a two-tone resonant spectroscopy. The small-amplitude response of the metamaterial under strong driving by a microwave pump tone is investigated experimentally and theoretically. The transmission coefficient $S_{21}$ of a weak probe signal is measured in the presence of the pump tone. Increasing the power of the pump, we observe pronounced oscillations of the SQUID's resonance frequency $f_{\textrm{res}}$. The shape of these oscillations varies significantly with the frequency of the pump tone $f_{\textrm{dr}}$. The response to the probe signal displays instabilities and sidebands. A state with strong second harmonic generation is observed. We provide a theoretical analysis of these observations, which is in good agreement with the experimental results