Speaker
Description
In parametric amplification, a signal is amplified by mixing it with a pump wave in a nonlinear medium. During the last five years, Josephson Travelling Wave Parametric Amplifiers (JTWPAs) have proven to deliver near-quantum limited amplification for signals in the 5 to 10 GHz range with a large relative bandwidth of about 10%. This performance made them the workhorse for multi-qubit system readout.
The unmatched low-noise characteristics of JTWPAs open up new opportunities in radio wave detection for fundamental physics. The work presented demonstrates the ability to design and operate a JTWPA at higher frequencies around 25 GHz, combined with an antenna.
This frequency was chosen as it is of particular interest for the Project 8 collaboration. Project 8 employs a technique termed electron Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES) to lower the bound on the electron neutrino mass. The ability to perform CRES in large volumes crucially depends on these low-noise cryogenic amplifiers to collect radio waves emitted by magnetically trapped electrons from tritium decay.
