Generation-Recombination Noise: The Fundamental Sensitivity Limit for Kinetic Inductance Detectors

Visser, Pieter de; Baselmans, J. J. A.; Diener, P.; Yates, S. J. C.; Endo, Akira; Klapwijk, T. M.

doi:10.1007/s10909-012-0519-5

Cited by 35 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The sensitivity of microwave resonators used as kinetic inductance detectors is usually expressed by the noise equivalent power (NEP). The NEP due to quasiparticle number fluctuations 16 can be expressed as NEP ¼…”

Section: -2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Microwave-induced excess quasiparticles in superconducting resonators measured through correlated conductivity fluctuations

Visser

Baselmans

Yates

et al. 2012

Applied Physics Letters

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We have measured the number of quasiparticles and their lifetime in aluminium superconducting microwave resonators. The number of excess quasiparticles below 160 mK decreases from 72 to 17 lm À3 with a 6 dB decrease of the microwave power. The quasiparticle lifetime increases accordingly from 1.4 to 3.5 ms. These properties of the superconductor were measured through the spectrum of correlated fluctuations in the quasiparticle system and condensate of the superconductor, which show up in the resonator amplitude and phase, respectively. Because uncorrelated noise sources vanish, fluctuations in the superconductor can be studied with a sensitivity close to the vacuum noise. The promise of a long quasiparticle lifetime and a long coherence time makes superconducting circuits popular for use in radiation detection and quantum computation. At low temperature the number of quasiparticles in a superconductor should decrease exponentially. Excess quasiparticles were recently suggested to limit the coherence time of superconducting qubits 1 and the tunnelling rate in single-electron transistors.2 Recently, the quasiparticle lifetime in a highquality aluminium superconducting resonator 3 was shown to be consistent with an excess quasiparticle population inferred from noise measurements. 4 There is a vivid debate on the question of the origin of those excess quasiparticles, 1,2,4 which mainly focuses on reducing the influence of the environment on the devices under study. Here we show for superconducting aluminium resonators that the environment is well enough under control in our experimental setup to reveal a new source of quasiparticles, namely, the microwave readout power of these devices. We show that the saturation in the number of quasiparticles at low temperature (100-150 mK), as inferred from noise measurements, decreases from 72 to 17lm À3 with a 6 dB decrease of the microwave power. The quasiparticle lifetime increases accordingly from 1.4 to 3.5 ms.Microwave resonators are popular devices in radiation detection 5 and circuit quantum electrodynamics. 6 The two quadratures of the microwave field in such a resonator are proportional to the real and imaginary part of the conductivity of the superconductor r 1 À ir 2 . The real part corresponds to dissipation in the quasiparticle system and the imaginary part to the kinetic inductance of the condensate. 7 We have shown recently that the real part of the conductivity shows quasiparticle number fluctuations. 4 When two quasiparticles recombine, a Cooper pair is formed and when a Cooper pair is broken it leaves two quasiparticles. Therefore, the superconducting condensate fluctuates as well, and one would expect to see these fluctuations in the reactive response of the microwave resonator. However, this reactive response is obscured by the response of two-level fluctuators in the dielectrics surrounding the resonator.8 Therefore, we study here the correlation between the dissipative and reactive part of the conductivity in an aluminium resonator. We observe correlated ...

show abstract

Section: -2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Microwave-induced excess quasiparticles in superconducting resonators measured through correlated conductivity fluctuations

Visser

Baselmans

Yates

et al. 2012

Applied Physics Letters

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Unpaired electronic excitations-quasiparticles-play an important role in determining the behavior of superconducting electrical devices. They lead to even-odd parity effects in Coulomb blockade nanostructures [1,2]; they act as a source of decoherence in superconducting qubits [3]; they cause generation-recombination noise in superconducting resonators [4]; they may be important in superconductingnormal devices for Majorana fermionics [5]; and, importantly, they enable the detection of far-infrared light, for example, in kinetic inductance detectors [6]. In this Rapid Communication we investigate the generation and recombination of single quasiparticle pairs in a superconducting double dot (SDD), a Coulomb blockade nanostructure.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental observation of the breaking and recombination of single Cooper pairs

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We observe the real-time breaking of single Cooper pairs by monitoring the radio-frequency impedance of a superconducting double quantum dot. The Cooper pair breaking rate in the microscale islands of our device decreases as temperature is reduced, saturating at 2 kHz for temperatures beneath 100 mK. In addition, we measure in real time the quasiparticle recombination into Cooper pairs. Analysis of the recombination rates shows that, in contrast to bulk films, a multistage recombination pathway is followed. Unpaired electronic excitations-quasiparticles-play an important role in determining the behavior of superconducting electrical devices. They lead to even-odd parity effects in Coulomb blockade nanostructures [1,2]; they act as a source of decoherence in superconducting qubits [3]; they cause generation-recombination noise in superconducting resonators [4]; they may be important in superconductingnormal devices for Majorana fermionics [5]; and, importantly, they enable the detection of far-infrared light, for example, in kinetic inductance detectors [6]. In this Rapid Communication we investigate the generation and recombination of single quasiparticle pairs in a superconducting double dot (SDD), a Coulomb blockade nanostructure. Double quantum dots have been widely investigated in the context of semiconducting spin qubits where they enable electrostatic control and measurement over electron spins and spin pairs [7]. Previously, semiconductor double dots have been integrated with superconducting leads, allowing electrostatically tunable supercurrents [8] and the splitting of Cooper pair currents into spatially separated and correlated electron currents [9][10][11]. However, apart from an early study investigating the superconducting double quantum dot as a qubit architecture [12], there have been few studies of this system, thus motivating our current work.We investigate the quasiparticle dynamics in the SDD, therefore, our results are relevant to the long-standing quasiparticle poisoning problem in superconducting qubits [13,14]. It has long been known that incoherent quasiparticle tunneling interrupts the coherent tunneling of Cooper pairs. Quasiparticle poisoning is hence a serious issue in charge-based * ajf1006@cam.ac.uk superconducting qubits [15] and has recently been shown to be relevant in the case of low-charging energy transmon qubits [16]. Experiments on superconducting qubits have shown that by taking extreme care over filtering infrared radiation it is possible to extend coherence times, presumably because of the lower quasiparticle temperatures achieved [17]. Quasiparticle tunneling into a Cooper pair box has been used to detect far-infrared radiation from a blackbody source with a noise-equivalent power of less than 10 −19 W/Hz 1/2 , potentially providing a successor technology to kinetic inductance detectors [18]. In parallel, studies on superconducting resonators have shown a saturation of the quasiparticle population at a relatively high temperature of 140 mK [19]. It remains an experimenta...

show abstract

“…As a result, the maximum τ qp of about 450 µsec with quality factor, Q, of 2 × 10 6 was obtained, and very low electrical NEP of about 6 × 10 −18 W/ √ Hz was achieved in amplitude readout with the MKID made of the high-quality Al film. Though we have demonstrated very high sensitivity of MKID, it has been proved that lower NEP can be achieved with MKID [27]. The current sensitivity seems to be limited by stray lights [28] in our measurement system, and therefore, improvement of readout system is underway to achieve lower NEP.…”

Section: Fabrication Of High-quality Film With Mbe Systemmentioning

confidence: 86%

Development of Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector for Cosmological Observations

Karatsu

Mima

Oguri

et al. 2015

IEICE Trans. Electron.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

SUMMARY A precise measurement of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) provides us rich information about the universe. In particular, its asymmetric polarization patterns, B-modes, are smoking gun signature of inflationary universe. Magnitude of the B-modes is order of 10 nK. Its measurement requires a high sensitive millimeter-wave telescope with a large number of superconducting detectors on its focal plane. Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector (MKID) is appropriate detector for this purpose. MKID camera has been developed in cooperation of National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), and Okayama University. Our developments of MKID include: fabrication of high-quality superconducting film; optical components for a camera use; and readout electronics. For performance evaluation of total integrated system of our MKID camera, a calibration system was also developed. The system was incorporated in a 0.1 K dilution refrigerator with modulated polarization source. These developed technologies are applicable to other types of detectors.

show abstract

Generation-Recombination Noise: The Fundamental Sensitivity Limit for Kinetic Inductance Detectors

Cited by 35 publications

References 22 publications

Microwave-induced excess quasiparticles in superconducting resonators measured through correlated conductivity fluctuations

Microwave-induced excess quasiparticles in superconducting resonators measured through correlated conductivity fluctuations

Experimental observation of the breaking and recombination of single Cooper pairs

Development of Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector for Cosmological Observations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About