Quantum limited quasiparticle mixers at 100 GHz

Author

Mears, C.A. ; Hu, Qing ; Richards, P.L. ; Worsham, A.H. ; Prober, D.E. ; Raisanen, Antti V.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

Volume

27

Issue

2

fYear

1991

fDate

3/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

3363

Lastpage

3369

Abstract

Accurate measurements of the noise and gain of superconducting-insulating-superconducting (SIS) mixers using small-area (1 μm²) Ta/Ta₂O₅/Pb_0.9Bi _0.1 tunnel junctions were made. The authors measured an added mixer noise of 0.61±0.31 quanta at 95.0 GHz, which is within 25% of the quantum limit of 0.5 quanta. Detailed comparison between theoretical predictions of the quantum theory of mixing has been carried out, and noise and gain have been experimentally measured. The shapes of the I-V curves pumped at the upper and lower sideband frequencies were used to deduce values of the embedding admittances at these frequencies. Using these admittances, the mixer noise and gain predicted by quantum theory are in excellent agreement with experiment

Keywords

bismuth alloys; electric noise measurement; gain measurement; lead alloys; mixers (circuits); solid-state microwave circuits; superconducting junction devices; superconductive tunnelling; tantalum; tantalum compounds; 95.0 GHz; I-V curves; SIS mixers; Ta-Ta₂O₅-PbBi; added mixer noise; embedding admittances; gain; noise; quantum limit; sideband frequencies; superconducting-insulating-superconducting; tunnel junctions; Bismuth; Frequency; Gain measurement; Josephson junctions; Noise measurement; Noise shaping; Quantum mechanics; Shape; Superconducting device noise; Superconducting devices;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.133934

Filename

133934