Josephson junction array device, and manufacture thereof

Abstract

A superconductive device is disclosed, which has specific characteristics of a generator and / or detector of sub-millimeter wavelength radiation, comprising a two-dimensional lateral array of mesas (column-shaped elements) each containing vertically stacked Josephson junctions on top of one another. This device is capable of covering the entire frequency range between the microwave and far infrared spectral regions, in a plurality of applications, where radiation emission and detection is involved. According to its various embodiments, thin columns (stacks) of Josephson junctions are monolithically built between superconducting electrical top and bottom contact layers. Mutually isolated segments cut out of the contact layers allow for optimization of circuit parameters such as impedance matching to load and maximizing the output power. External electronic control allows modulation of the radiation field and other operation modes of the device. The specification also describes special applications of the disclosed device.

Description

[0001] (a) Field of the Invention[0002] The invention relates to superconducting devices, corresponding technologies and application fields, and more specifically to a novel generator and detector of sub-millimeter electromagnetic radiation, and its multiple applications.[0003] (b) Description of the Related Art[0004] 1. Arrays of Artificial Junctions[0005] The first realization of potential usefulness of Josephson junctions as tunable microwave sources and detectors can be traced back to the earliest works of B. Josephson and S. Shapiro. It was also understood very early that a single Josephson junction emits with too little power and too broad linewidth to be useful as a practical microwave source. These deficiencies can be removed by using arrays of Josephson junctions [Jain et al. 1984; Bindslev Hansen and Lindelof 1984; Lukens 1990]. If the coupling between the junctions is strong enough, phase locking may occur between them; in this cases, the array emits coherent radiation [L...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0039] It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide means for avoiding some or all of the above difficulties.

[0041] It is another object of this invention to provide a novel sub-millimeter radiation device with an array impedance that allows an impedance matching to the load, this providing maximum off-chip emission power.

[0043] It is another object of this invention to provide a novel sub-millimeter radiation device with an electronic control mode which allows one to continuously vary the emission frequency and / or to tune the detection frequency, over a broad spectral range.

Problems solved by technology

No such applications have been realized (i.e., reduced to practice) so far, because of technical difficulties expounded above.

While enhanced radiation emission or sensitivity is intended by the summation of many Josephson junction-containing grains, there is little control and reproducibility, no phase locking, and complete load mismatch to vacuum.

Although this device is capable of switching between the superconducting and normal conductivity state by means of a magnetic field, generated by an electrical pulse through a layer adjacent to the Josephson junction, no intention has been made to control the radiation emission frequency by virtue of the effect the magnetic field might have on the energy gap of the superconductor.

One drawback of this device is that it is explicitly restricted to two-dimensional planar arrangements of Josephson junctions, which are placed next to one another on the chip.

This geometry introduces severe limitations on the maximum possible number of junctions in such an array.

As we will discuss in Section V (vii) below, this design does not allow for out-of-chip power of emitted microwave radiation at a level interesting for conceivable applications i.e. at least 0.1-1 mW.

This device has several drawbacks, some of which make its reduction to practice impossible within the constraints of currently known materials parameters and available microfabrication technologies.

In particular, that patent description does not teach one how to fabricate the (series) superconducting contacts between superconducting electrodes of stacked SIS Josephson junctions, which is the critical technological step required to fabricate the device.

There is no known technology today capable of performing such a task.

That, however, clashes with the current limitations for epitaxial growth of high-quality high-T.sub.c superconductor films (no more than few hundred nm).

To fabricate a stack of several such devices would be even less possible.

However, apart from losing the advantages of a high T.sub.c (such as the possibility to avoid expensive and cumbersome very low temperature cryogenic systems), in this hypothetical embodiment of the discussed device, one would also lose the advantage of extremely thin superconducting electrodes which are possible if one employs the high-T.sub.c superconductor cuprate compounds.

Another problem is that of the device "cross-talk".

The problem is that such a field would affect more than just one Josephson junction.

So, individual Josephson junction control, although the principal aim of that proposal, is impaired with such a design.

A further major-drawback of the device design in EP 513 557 A2 is that no considerations were made of output power of the electromagnetic radiation to be generated.

As pointed out above, it would be impractical to make even a few-junction stack within that design.

This would imply a substantial output-impedance load mismatch.

The device would burn out before one is able to extract significant microwave power out of it.

To summarize, it is our conclusion that the device described in EP 513557 A2 has not been reduced to practice because of several drawbacks in its design, namely, (i) its fabrication requires the deposition of superconducting contacts about 0.01 .mu.m wide on lateral sides of mesas that contain Josephson junction stacks, for which there is currently no known technology, (ii) there are no known superconductors that can sustain currents large enough to generate magnetic fields strong enough to reduce the superconducting gap in the high-T.sub.c superconductor Josephson junction electrodes, within the dimensional constraints of the device, (iii) the magnetic fields if generated would affect more than one Josephson junction (i.e., there would be inadmissible `cross talk` between individual devices within the same stack), and (iv) output power would be too low for the proposed system applications, in part because the device design does not allow for Josephson junction array circuit optimization.

The power of detected radiation was minuscule, less than 1 pW, partly due to gross load-impedance mismatch.

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