Related papers: Efficient electronic cooling above 2 K by niobium-…
Enhanced electron cooling is demonstrated in a strained-silicon/superconductor tunnel junction refrigerator of volume 40 um^3. The electron temperature is reduced from 300 mK to 174 mK, with the enhancement over an unstrained silicon…
We determine the thermal conductance of thin niobium (Nb) wires on a silica substrate in the temperature range of 0.1 - 0.6 K using electron thermometry based on normal metal-insulator-superconductor tunnel junctions. We find that at 0.6 K,…
Tunnel junctions are one of the key elements of chip-scale microsystems serving various technologies from classical microelectronics to quantum information. Aluminium and its oxide (AlOx) have dominated cryogenic tunnel junction technology…
Astronomical observations of cosmic sources in the far-infrared and X-ray bands require extreme sensitivity. The most sensitive detectors are cryogenic bolometers and calorimeters operating typically at about 100 mK. The last stage of…
We demonstrate electronic cooling of 1D phonon modes in suspended nanowires for the first time, using normal metal--insulator--superconductor (NIS) tunnel junctions. Simultaneous cooling of both electrons and phonons to a common temperature…
In the emergent field of quantum technology, the ability to manage heat at the nanoscale and in cryogenic conditions is crucial for enhancing device performance in terms of noise, coherence, and sensitivity. Here, we demonstrate the active…
Superconducting radio-frequency cavities are commonly used in modern particle accelerators for applied and fundamental research. Such cavities are typically made of high-purity, bulk Nb and are cooled by a liquid helium bath at a…
The microwave-driven dynamics of the superconducting phase difference across a Josephson junction is now widely employed in superconducting qubits and quantum circuits. With the typical energy level separation frequency of several GHz,…
In a normal-metal/insulator/superconductor (NIS) tunnel junction refrigerator, the normal-metal electrons are cooled and the dissipated power heats the superconducting electrode. This paper presents a review of the mechanisms by which heat…
Thermo-electric transport at the nano-scale is a rapidly developing topic, in particular in superconductor-based hybrid devices. In this review paper, we first discuss the fundamental principles of electronic cooling in mesoscopic…
The accurate determination of electronic temperatures in metallic nanostructures is essential for many technological applications, like plasmon-enhanced catalysis or lithographic nanofabrication procedures. In this Letter we demonstrate…
Encoding information onto optical fields is the backbone of modern telecommunication networks. Optical fibers offer low loss transport and vast bandwidth compared to electrical cables, and are currently also replacing coaxial cables for…
Correlating structure with electronic functionality is central to the engineering of quantum materials and devices whose properties depend sensitively on disorder. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) offers high spatial resolution…
We characterize niobium-based lateral Superconductor (S) - Normal metal (N) - Superconductor weak links through low-temperature switching current measurements and tunnel spectroscopy. We fabricate the SNS devices in two separate lithography…
Current state-of-the-art superconducting microwave qubits are cooled to extremely low temperatures to avoid sources of decoherence. Higher qubit operating temperatures would significantly increase the cooling power available, which is…
We report the development of superconducting tantalum nitride (TaN$_{x} $) normal metal-insulator-superconductor (NIS) tunnel junctions. For the insulating barrier, we used both AlO$_{x}$ and TaO$_{x}$ (Cu-AlO$_{x}$-Al-TaN$_{x} $ and…
A biased tunnel junction between a superconductor and a normal metal can cool the latter electrode. Based on a recently developed cooler with high power and superior performance, we have successfully integrated it with a dielectric silicon…
We demonstrate highly transparent silicon-vanadium and silicon-aluminum tunnel junctions with relatively low sub-gap leakage current and discuss how a trade-off typically encountered between transparency and leakage affects their…
We report experimental demonstration of the feasibility of reaching temperatures below 1 mK using cryogen-free technology. Our prototype system comprises an adiabatic nuclear demagnetisation stage, based on hyperfine-enhanced nuclear…
The Josephson junction is a crucial element in superconducting devices, and niobium is a promising candidate for the superconducting material due to its large energy gap relative to aluminum. AlO$_x$ has long been regarded as the highest…