Towards a controllable SQUID

  1. Alex Khanukov,
  2. Itay Mangel,
  3. Shai Wissberg,
  4. Amit Keren,
  5. and Beena Kalisky
Josephson junctions and superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUID) are important electronic elements, which are based on normal conductor sandwiched between two superconductors.
These junctions are produced by evaporation techniques, and once they are embedded in an electronic circuit, their properties are fixed. Using SQUIDs as a tunable component requires the ability to generate Josephson junctions in situ in a reversible controllable manner. In this work we demonstrated how a normal (metallic) region along a line traversing a superconductor can be turned on and off externally thus potentially generating a controllable Josephson junction or a SQUID. The concept is based on a long, current-carrying excitation coil, piercing a ring shaped superconductor with nucleation points. The vector potential produced by this coil generates a circular current that destroys superconductivity along a radial line starting at the nucleation point. Unlike the destruction of superconductivity with magnetic field, the vector potential method is reversible and reproducible; full superconductivity is recovered upon removing the current from the coil and different cool-downs yield the same normal lines.

A femto-Tesla DC SQUID design for quantum-ready readouts

  1. Ilya Sochnikov,
  2. Donovan Davino,
  3. and Beena Kalisky
Among some of the current uses of the DC Superconducting QUantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) are qubit-readouts and sensors for probing properties of quantum materials. We present
a rather unique gradiometric niobium SQUID design with state-of-the-art sensitivity in the femto-Tesla range which can be easily tuned to specific readout requirements. The sensor is a next generation of the fractional SQUIDs with tightly optimized input coil and a combination of all measures known for reducing parasitic resonances and other detrimental effects. In addition, our modeling predicts small dimensions for these planar sensors. This makes them of great interest for material studies and for detection of magnetic fields in small volumes, e.g. as part of a cryogenic scanning quantum imaging apparatus for efficient diagnostics and quantum device readouts. This manuscript will benefit scientists and engineers working on quantum computing technologies by clarifying potential general misconceptions about DC SQUID optimization alongside the introduction of the novel flexible compact DC SQUID design.