No Arabic abstract
We present a lumped-element Josephson parametric amplifier (JPA) utilizing a straightforward fabrication process involving a single electron beam lithography step followed by double-angle evaporation of aluminum and in-situ oxidation. The Josephson junctions forming the SQUID are fabricated using bridgeless shadow evaporation technique, which enables reliable fabrication of relatively large ($sim9~mathrm{mu m^2}$) junctions. Our strongly coupled flux-pumped JPA achieves 20~dB gain with 95~MHz bandwidth around 5~GHz, while the center frequency is tunable by more than 1~GHz, with the additional possibility for rapid tuning by varying the pump frequency alone. Analytical calculations based on the input-output theory reproduce our measurement results closely.
We investigate the dynamics of a microwave-driven Josephson junction capacitively coupled to a lumped element LC oscillator. In the regime of driving where the Josephson junction can be approximated as a Kerr oscillator, this minimal nonlinear system has been previously shown to exhibit a bistability in phase and amplitude. In the present study, we characterize the full phase diagram and show that besides a parameter regime exhibiting bistability, there is also a regime of self-oscillations characterized by a frequency comb in its spectrum. We discuss the mechanism of comb generation which appears to be different from those studied in microcavity frequency combs and mode-locked lasers. We then address the fate of the comb-like spectrum in the regime of strong quantum fluctuations, reached when nonlinearity becomes the dominant scale with respect to dissipation. We find that the nonlinearity responsible for the emergence of the frequency combs also leads to its dephasing, leading to broadening and ultimate disappearance of sharp spectral peaks. Our study explores the fundamental question of the impact of quantum fluctuations for quantum systems which do not possess a stable fixed point in the classical limit.
We have developed a Josephson parametric amplifier, comprising a superconducting coplanar waveguide resonator terminated by a dc SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device). An external field (the pump, $sim 20$ GHz) modulates the flux threading the dc SQUID, and, thereby, the resonant frequency of the cavity field (the signal, $sim 10$ GHz), which leads to parametric signal amplification. We operated the amplifier at different band centers, and observed amplification (17 dB at maximum) and deamplification depending on the relative phase between the pump and the signal. The noise temperature is estimated to be less than 0.87 K.
We introduce a novel near-quantum-limited amplifier with a large tunable bandwidth and high dynamic range - the Josephson Array Mode Parametric Amplifier (JAMPA). The signal and idler modes involved in the amplification process are realized by the array modes of a chain of 1000 flux tunable, Josephson-junction-based, nonlinear elements. The frequency spacing between array modes is comparable to the flux tunability of the modes, ensuring that any desired frequency can be occupied by a resonant mode, which can further be pumped to produce high gain. We experimentally demonstrate that the device can be operated as a nearly quantum-limited parametric amplifier with 20 dB of gain at almost any frequency within (4-12) GHz band. On average, it has a 3 dB bandwidth of 11 MHz and input 1 dB compression power of -108 dBm, which can go as high as -93 dBm. We envision the application of such a device to the time- and frequency-multiplexed readout of multiple qubits, as well as to the generation of continuous-variable cluster states.
We present the theory of a Josephson parametric amplifier employing two pump sources. Our calculations are based on Input-Output Theory, and can easily be generalized to any coupled system involving parametric interactions. We analyze the operation of the device, taking into account the feedback introduced by the reaction of the signal and noise on the pump power, and in this framework, compute the response functions of interest - signal and idler gains, internal gain of the amplifier, and self-oscillation signal amplitude. To account for this back-action between signal and pump, we adopt a mean-field approach and self-consistently explore the boundary between amplification and self-oscillation. The coincidence of bifurcation and self-oscillation thresholds reveals that the origin of coherent emission of the amplifier lies in the multi-wave mixing of the noise components. Incorporation of the back-action leads the system to exhibit hysteresis, dependent on parameters like temperature and detuning from resonance. Our analysis also shows that the resonance condition itself changes in the presence of back-action and this can be understood in terms of the change in plasma frequency of the junction. The potential of the double pump amplifier for quantum-limited measurements and as a squeezer is also discussed.
We report single-shot readout of a superconducting flux qubit by using a flux-driven Josephson parametric amplifier (JPA). After optimizing the readout power, gain of the JPA and timing of the data acquisition, we observe the Rabi oscillations with a contrast of 74% which is mainly limited by the bandwidth of the JPA and the energy relaxation of the qubit. The observation of quantum jumps between the qubit eigenstates under continuous monitoring indicates the nondestructiveness of the readout scheme.