Related papers: Superconducting Cloud Chamber
We propose a single photon detector based on a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) with superconductor-normal metal-superconductor Josephson weak links. One of the two Josephson junctions is connected to an antenna, and is…
Gas-filled Time Projection Chambers (TPCs) with Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs) and pixels appear suitable for direction-sensitive WIMP dark matter searches. We present the background and motivation for our work on this technology, past and…
Superconducting circuits can exhibit quantized energy levels and long coherence times. Harnessing the anharmonicity offered by Josephson junctions, such circuits have been successfully employed as qubits, quantum limited amplifiers and…
We report on recent progress in the search for dark matter particles with masses from 1 MeV to 1 GeV. Several dark matter candidates in this mass range are expected to generate measurable electronic-recoil signals in direct-detection…
We consider two chains of ultrasmall Josephson junctions, coupled capacitively with each other, and investigate the transport of particle-hole pairs and the quantum phase transitions at zero temperature. For appropriate parameter ranges,…
We study the optical properties of crystals with spatial dispersion and show that the usual Fresnel approach becomes invalid near frequencies where the group velocity of the wave packets inside the crystal vanishes. Near these special…
Recently, a search for milli-charged particles produced at the LHC has been proposed. The experiment, named milliQan, is expected to obtain sensitivity to charges of $10^{- 1} - 10^{-3}e$ for masses in the 0.1 - 100 GeV range. The detector…
If dark matter particles have an electric charge, as in models of millicharged dark matter, such particles should be accelerated in the same astrophysical accelerators that produce ordinary cosmic rays, and their spectra should have a…
We report on graphene-based Josephson junctions with contacts made from lead. The high transition temperature of this superconductor allows us to observe the supercurrent branch at temperatures up to $\sim 2$ K, at which point we can detect…
Neutrino cross sections are a critical ingredient in experiments that depend on neutrino scattering to reconstruct event kinematics and infer neutrino characteristics, like NOvA and T2K. An opportunity exists to reduce the 5-10% broad…
Quantum mechanics can strongly influence the noise properties of mesoscopic devices. To probe this effect we have measured the current fluctuations at high-frequency (5-90G Hz) using a superconductor-insulator-superconductor tunnel junction…
This review discusses the electronic properties and the prospective research directions of superconductor-graphene heterostructures. The basic electronic properties of graphene are introduced to highlight the unique possibility of combining…
Some hypothetical particles are considered essentially undetectable because they are far too light and slow-moving to transfer appreciable energy or momentum to the normal matter that composes a detector. I propose instead directly…
The viability of using a Bubble Chamber for rare event searches and in particular for the detection of dark matter particle candidates is considered. Techniques leading to the deactivation of inhomogeneous nucleation centers and subsequent…
We present and theoretically analyse the performance of an innovative non-local superconducting single-photon detector. The device operates thanks to the energy-to-phase conversion mechanism, where the energy of the absorbed single-photon…
Further development of quantum emitter based communication and sensing applications intrinsically depends on the availability of robust single-photon detectors. Here, we demonstrate a new generation of superconducting single-photon…
Fractionally charged excitations play a central role in condensed matter physics, and can be probed in different ways. If transport occurs via dissipation-less supercurrents, they manifest as a fractional Josephson effect, whereas in…
Electronic transport through nanostructures is greatly affected by the presence of superconducting leads. If the interface between the nanostructure and the superconductors is sufficiently transparent, a dissipationless current…
Superconducting integrated circuits have demonstrated a tremendous potential to realize integrated quantum computing processors. However, the downside of the solid-state approach is that superconducting qubits suffer strongly from energy…
We propose and study a new class of superconducting detectors which are sensitive to O(meV) electron recoils from dark matter-electron scattering. Such devices could detect dark matter as light as the warm dark matter limit, mX > keV. We…