Driving a low critical current Josephson junction array with a mode-locked laser
Abstract
We demonstrate the operation of Josephson junction arrays (JJA) driven by optical pulses generated by a mode-locked laser and an optical time-division multiplexer. A commercial photodiode converts the optical pulses into electrical ones in liquid helium several cm from the JJA. The performance of our custom-made mode-locked laser is sufficient for driving a JJA with low critical current at multiple Shapiro steps. Our optical approach is a potential enabler for fast and energy-efficient pulse drive without expensive high-bandwidth electrical pulse pattern generator, and without high-bandwidth electrical cabling crossing temperature stages. Our measurements and simulations motivate an improved integration of photodiodes and JJAs using, e.g., flip-chip techniques, in order to improve both the understanding and fidelity of pulse-driven Josephson Arbitrary Waveform Synthesizers (JAWS).
Cite
@article{arxiv.2009.12352,
title = {Driving a low critical current Josephson junction array with a mode-locked laser},
author = {J. Nissila and T. Fordell and K. Kohopaa and E. Mykkanen and P. Immonen and R. N. Jabradaghi and E. Bardalen and O. Kieler and B. Karlsen and P. A. Ohlckers and R. Behr and A. J. Manninen and J. Govenius and A. Kemppinen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2009.12352},
year = {2021}
}