No Arabic abstract
Superconducting circuits are exceptionally flexible, enabling many different devices from sensors to quantum computers. Separately, epitaxial semiconductor devices such as spin qubits in silicon offer more limited device variation but extraordinary quantum properties for a solid-state system. It might be possible to merge the two approaches, making single-crystal superconducting devices out of a semiconductor by utilizing the latest atomistic fabrication techniques. Here we propose superconducting devices made from precision hole-doped regions within a silicon (or germanium) single crystal. We analyze the properties of this superconducting semiconductor and show that practical superconducting wires, Josephson tunnel junctions or weak links, superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs), and qubits are feasible. This work motivates the pursuit of bottom-up superconductivity for improved or fundamentally different technology and physics.
Recent improvements in materials growth and fabrication techniques may finally allow for superconducting semiconductors to realize their potential. Here we build on a recent proposal to construct superconducting devices such as wires, Josephson junctions, and qubits inside and out-of single crystal silicon or germanium. Using atomistic fabrication techniques such as STM hydrogen lithography, heavily-doped superconducting regions within a single crystal could be constructed. We describe the characteristic parameters of basic superconducting elements---a 1D wire and a tunneling Josephson junction---and estimate the values for boron-doped silicon. The epitaxial, single-crystal nature of these devices, along with the extreme flexibility in device design down to the single-atom scale, may enable lower-noise or new types of devices and physics. We consider applications for such super-silicon devices, showing that the state-of-the-art transmon qubit and the sought-after phase-slip qubit can both be realized. The latter qubit leverages the natural high kinetic inductance of these materials. Building on this, we explore how kinetic inductance based particle detectors (e.g., photon or phonon) could be realized with potential application in astronomy or nanomechanics. We discuss super-semi devices (such as in silicon, germanium, or diamond) which would not require atomistic fabrication approaches and could be realized today.
We theoretically study the emission statistics of a weakly nonlinear photonic dimer during coherent oscillations. We show that the phase and population dynamics allow to periodically meet an optimal intensity squeezing condition resulting in a strongly nonclassical emission statistics. By considering an exciton-polariton Josephson junction resonantly driven by a classical source, we show that a sizeable antibunching should emerge in such semiconductor system where intrinsic nonclassical signatures have remained elusive to date.
We consider a combined nanomechanical-supercondcuting device that allows the Cooper pair tunneling to interfere with the mechanical motion of the middle superconducting island. Coupling of mechanical oscillations of a superconducting island between two superconducting leads to the electronic tunneling generate a supercurrent which is modulated by the oscillatory motion of the island. This coupling produces alternating finite and vanishing supercurrent as function of the superconducting phases. Current peaks are sensitive to the superconducting phase shifts relative to each other. The proposed device may be used to study the nanoelectromechanical coupling in case of superconducting electronics.
We measured the Josephson radiation emitted by an InSb semiconductor nanowire junction utilizing photon assisted quasiparticle tunneling in an AC-coupled superconducting tunnel junction. We quantify the action of the local microwave environment by evaluating the frequency dependence of the inelastic Cooper-pair tunneling of the nanowire junction and find the zero frequency impedance $Z(0)=492,Omega$ with a cutoff frequency of $f_0=33.1,$GHz. We extract a circuit coupling efficiency of $etaapprox 0.1$ and a detector quantum efficiency approaching unity in the high frequency limit. In addition to the Josephson radiation, we identify a shot-noise contribution with a Fano factor $Fapprox1$, consistently with the presence of single electron states in the nanowire channel.
Injection locking can stabilize a source of radiation, leading to an efficient suppression of noise-induced spectral broadening and therefore, to a narrow spectrum. The technique is well established in laser physics, where a phenomenological description due to Adler is usually sufficient. Recently, locking experiments were performed in Josephson photonics devices, where microwave radiation is created by inelastic Cooper pair tunneling across a dc-biased Josephson junction connected in-series with a microwave resonator. An in-depth theory of locking for such devices, accounting for the Josephson non-linearity and the specific engineered environments, is lacking. Here, we study injection locking in a typical Josephson photonics device where the environment consists of a single mode cavity, operated in the classical regime. We show that an in-series resistance, however small, is an important ingredient in describing self-sustained Josephson oscillations and enables the locking region. We derive a dynamical equation describing locking, similar to an Adler equation, from the specific circuit equations. The effect of noise on the locked Josephson phase is described in terms of phase slips in a modified washboard potential. For weak noise, the spectral broadening is reduced exponentially with the injection signal. When this signal is provided from a second Josephson device, the two devices synchronize. In the linearized limit, we recover the Kuramoto model of synchronized oscillators. The picture of classical phase slips established here suggests a natural extension towards a theory of locking in the quantum regime.