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Miroslav Grajcar

Publications and source records attributed to Miroslav Grajcar.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2025

Photothermal resistivity alignment of optical fibers to SNSPD

We demonstrate a straightforward optoelectronic fiber alignment technique for superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) that exploits the temperature-dependent resistance of the nanowire under optical absorption. The target nanowire is illuminated via the fiber, and the local absorption of light heats the wire, causing a change in its resistivity. Scanning the fiber over the nanowire, the change in its resistivity is monitored by lock-in amplifier, mapping the spatial photothermal response correlated to absorption and coupling efficiency. The maximum of the response corresponds to optimal fiber-SNSPD alignment. This method allows for aligning the fiber to the center of the meander with sub-micron precision. The response is robust to variations in the angle and height of the fiber, providing an alternative or complement to fiber-to-chip alignment methods based on the back-reflection or transmission measurement.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2025

Optical and transport properties of NbN thin films revisited

Highly disordered NbN thin films exhibit promising superconducting and optical properties. Despite extensive study, discrepancies in its basic electronic properties persist. Analysis of the optical conductivity of disordered ultra-thin NbN films, obtained from spectroscopic ellipsometry by standard Drude-Lorentz model, provides inconsistent parameters. We argue that this discrepancy arise from neglecting the presence of quantum corrections to conductivity in the IR range. To resolve this matter, we propose a modification to the Drude-Lorentz model, incorporating quantum corrections. The parameters obtained from the modified model are consistent not only with transport and superconducting measurements but also with ab initio calculations. The revisited values describing conduction electrons, which differ significantly from commonly adopted ones, are the electron relaxation rate $Γ\approx1.8~\textrm{eV}/\hbar$, the Fermi velocity $v_F \approx 0.7 \times 10^{6}~\textrm{ms}^{-1}$ and the electron density of states $N(E_F)=2~$states of both spins/eV/$V_{\textrm{f.u.}}$.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2025

Josephson Traveling Wave Parametric Amplifiers with Plasma oscillation phase-matching

High gain and large bandwidth of traveling-wave parametric amplifier exploiting the nonlinearity of Josephson Junctions can be achieved by fulfilling the so-called phase-matching condition. This condition is usually addressed by placing resonant structures along the waveguide or by periodic modulations of its parameters, creating gaps in the waveguide's dispersion. Here, we propose to employ the Josephson junctions, which constitute the centerline of the amplifier, as resonant elements for phase matching. By numerical simulations in JoSIM (and WRspice) software, we show that Josephson plasma oscillations can be utilized to create wavevector mismatch sufficient for phase matching as well as to prevent the conversion of the pump energy to higher harmonics. The proposed TWPA design has a gain of 15 dB and a 3.5 GHz bandwidth, which is comparable to the state-of-the-art TWPAs.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2024

Numerical modeling of SNSPD absorption utilizing optical conductivity with quantum corrections

Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors are widely used in various fields of physics and technology, due to their high efficiency and timing precision. Although, in principle, their detection mechanism offers broadband operation, their wavelength range has to be optimized by the optical cavity parameters for a specific task. We present a study of the optical absorption of a superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD) with an optical cavity. The optical properties of the niobium nitride films, measured by spectroscopic ellipsometry, were modelled using the Drude-Lorentz model with quantum corrections. The numerical simulations of the optical response of the detectors show that the wavelength range of the detector is not solely determined by its geometry, but the optical conductivity of the disordered thin metallic films contributes considerably. This contribution can be conveniently expressed by the ratio of imaginary and real parts of the optical conductivity. This knowledge can be utilized in detector design.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2024

Detecting virtual photons in ultrastrongly coupled superconducting quantum circuits

Light-matter interaction and understanding the fundamental physics behind is essential for emerging quantum technologies. Solid-state devices may explore new regimes where coupling strengths are "ultrastrong", i.e., comparable to the energies of the subsystems. New exotic phenomena occur the common root of many of them being the fact that the entangled vacuum contains virtual photons. They herald the lack of conservation of the number of excitations which is the witness of ultrastrong coupling breaking the U(1) symmetry. Despite more than a decade of research, the detection of ground-state virtual photons still awaits demonstration. In this work, we recognize the "conspiring" set of experimental challenges and show how to overcome them, thus providing a solution to this long-standing problem. We find that combining a superinductor-based unconventional "light fluxonium" qudit and coherent control yields a highly efficient, faithful, and selective conversion of virtual photons into real ones. This enables their detection with resources available to present-day quantum technologies.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2024

Integrated conversion and photodetection of virtual photons in an ultrastrongly coupled superconducting quantum circuit

The ground-state of an artificial atom ultrastrongly coupled to quantized modes is entangled and contains an arbitrary number of virtual photons. The problem of their detection has been raised since the very birth of the field but despite the theoretical efforts still awaits experimental demonstration. Recently experimental problems have been addressed in detail showing that they can be overcome by combining an unconventional design of the artificial atom with advanced coherent control. In this work we study a simple scheme of control-integrated continuous measurement which makes remarkably favourable the tradeoff between measurement efficiency and backaction showing that the unambiguous detection of virtual photons can be achieved within state-of-the art quantum technologies.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2015

Simulating long-distance entanglement in quantum spin chains by superconducting flux qubits

We investigate the performance of superconducting flux qubits for the adiabatic quantum simulation of long distance entanglement (LDE), namely a finite ground-state entanglement between the end spins of a quantum spin chain with open boundary conditions. As such, LDE can be considered an elementary precursor of edge modes and topological order. We discuss two possible implementations which simulate open chains with uniform bulk and weak end bonds, either with Ising or with XX nearest-neighbor interactions. In both cases we discuss a suitable protocol for the adiabatic preparation of the ground state in the physical regimes featuring LDE. In the first case the adiabatic manipulation and the Ising interactions are realized using dc currents, while in the second case microwaves fields are used to control the smoothness of the transformation and to realize the effective XX interactions. We demonstrate the adiabatic preparation of the end-to-end entanglement in chains of four qubits with realistic parameters and on a relatively fast time scale.

quant-ph↗