We study voltage response of nano-bridge based DC-SQUID fabricated on a Si_{3}N_{4} membrane. Such a configuration may help in reducing 1/f noise, which originates from substrate fluctuating defects. We find that the poor thermal coupling between the
DC-SQUID and the substrate leads to strong hysteretic response of the SQUID, even though it is biased by an alternating current. In addition, when the DC-SQUID is biased near a threshold of spontaneous oscillations, the measured voltage has an intermittent pattern, which depends on the applied magnetic flux through the SQUID.
We study the metastable response of a highly hysteretic DC-SQUID made of a Niobium loop interrupted by two nano-bridges. We excite the SQUID with an alternating current and with direct magnetic flux, and find different stability zones forming diamond
-like structures in the measured voltage across the SQUID. When such a SQUID is embedded in a transmission line resonator similar diamond structures are observed in the reflection pattern of the resonator. We have calculated the DC-SQUID stability diagram in the plane of the exciting control parameters, both analytically and numerically. In addition, we have obtained numerical simulations of the SQUID equations of motion, taking into account temperature variations and non-sinusoidal current-phase relation of the nano-bridges. Good agreement is found between experimental and theoretical results.
We study self-sustained oscillations (SO) in a Nb superconducting stripline resonators (SSR) integrated with a DC superconducting quantum interface devices (SQUID). We find that both the power threshold where these oscillations start and the oscillat
ions frequency are periodic in the applied magnetic flux threading the SQUID loop. A theoretical model which attributes the SO to a thermal instability in the DC-SQUID yields a good agreement with the experimental results. This flux dependant nonlinearity may be used for quantum state reading of a qubit-SSR integrated device.
Supplementary information for the article Intermode Dephasing in a Superconducting Stripline Resonator (arXiv:0901.3110). The supplementary information is devoted to three main issues. In section I we describe the fabrication process; in section II w
e present the derivation of the Hamiltonian of the system and provide a more detailed discussion about the properties of the microbridges; in section III the hysteretic response of the resonator and the effect of heating are discussed.
We study superconducting stripline resonator (SSR) made of Niobium, which is integrated with a superconducting interference device (SQUID). The large nonlinear inductance of the SQUID gives rise to strong Kerr nonlinearity in the response of the SSR,
which in turn results in strong coupling between different modes of the SSR. We experimentally demonstrate that such intermode coupling gives rise to dephasing of microwave photons. The dephasing rate depends periodically on the external magnetic flux applied to the SQUID, where the largest rate is obtained at half integer values (in units of the flux quantum). To account for our result we compare our findings with theory and find good agreement. Supplementary info at arXiv:0901.3133 .
We utilize a superconducting stripline resonator containing a dc-SQUID as a strong intermodulation amplifier exhibiting a signal gain of 25 dB and a phase modulation of 30 dB. Studying the system response in the time domain near the intermodulation a
mplification threshold reveals a unique noise-induced spikes behavior. We account for this response qualitatively via solving numerically the equations of motion for the integrated system. Furthermore, employing this device as a parametric amplifier yields a gain of 38 dB in the generated side-band signal.
