Mutual phase locking of Josephson tunnel junctions at millimeter-wave frequencies

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5888446

Lee, G S

The ac Josephson effect provides a convenient source of electromagnetic oscillations which are voltage-tunable according to the relation f = 2eV/h. In principle, the frequency of oscillation can be anything from zero to a few terahertz for junctions made of lead- or niobium-based superconductors. In practice, the available power of a single Josephson junction is so extremely small that it is unable to sufficiently drive any mixing element in a receiver system. In addition, the impedance level is rather low for practical applications. Although there have been a number of previous successful attempts to phase lock Josephson junctions, they have all occurred at centimeter wavelengths, typically around 10GHz. At this frequency, one has an almost inexhaustible choice of commercial oscillators which provide more power quite conveniently and inexpensively. The situation is much different at short-millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths, that is, frequencies of 100's of GHz. The author investigated mutual phase locking of Josephson tunnel junctions at these frequencies. In the experiments with small arrays, he demonstrates the phase locking that numerical simulations and approximate analytical methods had predicted. Additionally, various phenomena associated with phase locking are discussed, as well as some more advanced schemes at explaining phase-locked Josephson junction arrays.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Berkeley (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5888446
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

420201* -- Engineering-- Cryogenic Equipment & Devices
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
FREQUENCY RANGE
FREQUENCY SELECTION
GHZ RANGE
GHZ RANGE 100-1000
JOSEPHSON JUNCTIONS
JUNCTIONS
MODE LOCKING
OSCILLATIONS
SUPERCONDUCTING JUNCTIONS