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Observation of microwave absorption and emission from incoherent electron tunneling through a normal-metal–insulator–superconductor junction

We experimentally study nanoscale normal-metal–insulator–superconductor junctions coupled to a superconducting microwave resonator. We observe that bias-voltage-controllable single-electron tunneling through the junctions gives rise to a direct conversion between the electrostatic energy and that of...

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Autores principales: Masuda, Shumpei, Tan, Kuan Y., Partanen, Matti, Lake, Russell E., Govenius, Joonas, Silveri, Matti, Grabert, Hermann, Möttönen, Mikko
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5834461/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29500368
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-21772-5
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author Masuda, Shumpei
Tan, Kuan Y.
Partanen, Matti
Lake, Russell E.
Govenius, Joonas
Silveri, Matti
Grabert, Hermann
Möttönen, Mikko
author_facet Masuda, Shumpei
Tan, Kuan Y.
Partanen, Matti
Lake, Russell E.
Govenius, Joonas
Silveri, Matti
Grabert, Hermann
Möttönen, Mikko
author_sort Masuda, Shumpei
collection PubMed
description We experimentally study nanoscale normal-metal–insulator–superconductor junctions coupled to a superconducting microwave resonator. We observe that bias-voltage-controllable single-electron tunneling through the junctions gives rise to a direct conversion between the electrostatic energy and that of microwave photons. The measured power spectral density of the microwave radiation emitted by the resonator exceeds at high bias voltages that of an equivalent single-mode radiation source at 2.5 K although the phonon and electron reservoirs are at subkelvin temperatures. Measurements of the generated power quantitatively agree with a theoretical model in a wide range of bias voltages. Thus, we have developed a microwave source which is compatible with low-temperature electronics and offers convenient in-situ electrical control of the incoherent photon emission rate with a predetermined frequency, without relying on intrinsic voltage fluctuations of heated normal-metal components or suffering from unwanted losses in room temperature cables. Importantly, our observation of negative generated power at relatively low bias voltages provides a novel type of verification of the working principles of the recently discovered quantum-circuit refrigerator.
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spelling pubmed-58344612018-03-05 Observation of microwave absorption and emission from incoherent electron tunneling through a normal-metal–insulator–superconductor junction Masuda, Shumpei Tan, Kuan Y. Partanen, Matti Lake, Russell E. Govenius, Joonas Silveri, Matti Grabert, Hermann Möttönen, Mikko Sci Rep Article We experimentally study nanoscale normal-metal–insulator–superconductor junctions coupled to a superconducting microwave resonator. We observe that bias-voltage-controllable single-electron tunneling through the junctions gives rise to a direct conversion between the electrostatic energy and that of microwave photons. The measured power spectral density of the microwave radiation emitted by the resonator exceeds at high bias voltages that of an equivalent single-mode radiation source at 2.5 K although the phonon and electron reservoirs are at subkelvin temperatures. Measurements of the generated power quantitatively agree with a theoretical model in a wide range of bias voltages. Thus, we have developed a microwave source which is compatible with low-temperature electronics and offers convenient in-situ electrical control of the incoherent photon emission rate with a predetermined frequency, without relying on intrinsic voltage fluctuations of heated normal-metal components or suffering from unwanted losses in room temperature cables. Importantly, our observation of negative generated power at relatively low bias voltages provides a novel type of verification of the working principles of the recently discovered quantum-circuit refrigerator. Nature Publishing Group UK 2018-03-02 /pmc/articles/PMC5834461/ /pubmed/29500368 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-21772-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Masuda, Shumpei
Tan, Kuan Y.
Partanen, Matti
Lake, Russell E.
Govenius, Joonas
Silveri, Matti
Grabert, Hermann
Möttönen, Mikko
Observation of microwave absorption and emission from incoherent electron tunneling through a normal-metal–insulator–superconductor junction
title Observation of microwave absorption and emission from incoherent electron tunneling through a normal-metal–insulator–superconductor junction
title_full Observation of microwave absorption and emission from incoherent electron tunneling through a normal-metal–insulator–superconductor junction
title_fullStr Observation of microwave absorption and emission from incoherent electron tunneling through a normal-metal–insulator–superconductor junction
title_full_unstemmed Observation of microwave absorption and emission from incoherent electron tunneling through a normal-metal–insulator–superconductor junction
title_short Observation of microwave absorption and emission from incoherent electron tunneling through a normal-metal–insulator–superconductor junction
title_sort observation of microwave absorption and emission from incoherent electron tunneling through a normal-metal–insulator–superconductor junction
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5834461/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29500368
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-21772-5
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