arXiv subjects

S. Kern

Publications and source records attributed to S. Kern.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Third harmonic-mediated amplification in TWPA

In Josephson Traveling-Wave Parametric Amplifiers, higher-order harmonics of the pump tone and its sidebands are commonly present and typically regarded as parasitic. Consequently, most design efforts have focused on suppressing these harmonics. In spite of that, motivated by transient simulations, we extend the coupled-mode theory and demonstrate that, contrary to conventional belief, the third harmonic can enhance amplifier performance, improving both gain and bandwidth. We show that the recently developed plasma oscillation-based amplifier is particularly well-suited for exploiting this effect. Their dispersion relation enables us to observe the phenomenon in transient numerical simulations using JoSIM and WRspice. These simulations reveal improvement of the amplifier's performance, specifically the doubling of the bandwidth and an increase in the gain.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2023

Design of deeply cooled ultra-low dissipation amplifier and measuring cell for quantum measurements with a microwave single-photon counter

The requirements and details of designing a measuring cell and low-back-action deeply-cooled amplifier for quantum measurements at 10 mK are discussed. This equipment is a part of a microwave single-photon counter based on a superconducting flux qubit. The high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) in the amplifier operate in unsaturated microcurrent regime and dissipate only 1 microwatt of dc power per transistor. Simulated amplifier gain is 15 dB at 450 MHz with a high-impedance (~5 kOhm signal source and standard 50-Ohm output.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Reflection-enhanced gain in traveling-wave parametric amplifiers

The operating principle of traveling-wave parametric amplifiers is typically understood in terms of the standard coupled mode theory, which describes the evolution of forward propagating waves without any reflections, i.e. for perfect impedance matching. However, in practice, superconducting microwave amplifiers are unmatched nonlinear finite-length devices, where the reflecting waves undergo complex parametric processes, not described by the standard coupled mode theory. Here, we present an analytical solution for the TWPA gain, which includes the interaction of reflected waves. These reflections result in corrections to the well-known results of the standard coupled mode theory, which are obtained for both 3-wave and 4-wave mixing processes. Due to these reflections, gain is enhanced and unwanted nonlinear phase modulations are suppressed. Predictions of the model are experimentally demonstrated on two types of unmatched TWPA, based on coplanar waveguides with a central wire consisting of i) a high kinetic inductance superconductor, and ii) an array of 2000 Josephson junctions.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

A numerical extrapolation method for complex conductivity of disordered metals

Recently, quantum corrections to optical conductivity of disordered metals up to the UV region were observed. Although this increase of conductivity with frequency, also called anti-Drude behaviour, should disappear at the electron collision frequency, such transition has never been observed or described theoretically. Thus, the knowledge of optical conductivity in a wide frequency range is of great interest. It is well known that the extrapolation of complex conductivity is ill-posed - a solution of the analytic continuation problem is not unique for data with finite accuracy. However, we show that assuming physically appropriate properties of the searched function $\sigma(\omega)$, such as: symmetry, smoothness, and asymptotic solution for low and high frequencies, one can significantly restrict the set of solutions. We present a simple numerical method utilizing the radial basis function approximation and simulated annealing, which reasonably extrapolates the optical conductivity from visible frequency range down to far infrared and up to ultraviolet region. Extrapolation obtained on MoC and NbN thin films was checked by transmission measurement across a wide frequency range.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2004

Crystal Field Effects in CeIrIn5

In this work, we study crystalline electric field effects in the heavy fermion superconductor CeIrIn5. We observe two regions of broad magnetic response in the inelastic neutron scattering spectra at 10 K. The first corresponds to the transition between the gamma7 groundstate doublet and the first excited state doublet at 4 meV interwoven with a broad quasielastic contribution. The second region corresponds to the transition between the ground state and the second excited state doublet at 28 meV. The large Lorentzian half-widths of the peaks (~10 meV) calls into question calculations for the specific heat and magnetic susceptibility that assume sharp crystal field levels. Consequently, we have calculated the inelastic neutron scattering spectra and magnetic susceptibility using the Anderson impurity model within the non-crossing approximation (NCA) including the effects of crystal field level splitting.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2002

Neutron scattering study of cyrstal fields in CeRhIn5

Neutron scattering results for the tetragonal compound CeRhIn5 give evidence for two crystal field (CF) excitations at 6.9 and 23.6 meV. The scattering can be fit assuming a set of CF parameters B$^{0}_{2}$ = -1.03 meV, B$^{0}_{4}$ = 0.044 meV and B$^{4}_{4}$ = 0.122 meV. To compare our results to previous work, we calculate the susceptibility and specific heat for this CF scheme, including a molecular field term $λ= $35 mol/emu to account for the Kondo effect. We also include a calculation based on these CF parameters that uses the non-crossing approximation to the Anderson model to estimate the effect of Kondo physics on the susceptibility, specific heat and neutron linewidths.

cond-mat.str-el↗