Cascade Electronic Refrigerator Using Superconducting Tunnel Junctions

Nguyễn, Hồng Quang; Peltonen, Joonas T.; Meschke, Matthias; Pekola, Jukka P.

doi:10.1103/physrevapplied.6.054011

Cited by 21 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(77 reference statements)

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“…This being done, we have demonstrated a temperature reduction of a factor 5, from 150 mK down to 30 mK, and a cooling power of the order of one nanoWatt. Further improvement could be achieved by using active traps, where the traps themselves are cooled electronically [27], or, similarly, cascade coolers where the superconducting electrodes of a SIN device are directly cooled using a SIS' junction, where S' is a superconductor with a larger energy gap [28]. Moreover, spin-filtering barriers may help in eliminating Andreev processes [29].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-performance electronic cooling with superconducting tunnel junctions

Courtois

Nguyễn

Winkelmann

et al. 2016

Comptes Rendus. Physique

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International audienceWhen biased at a voltage just below a superconductor's energy gap, a tunnel junction between this superconductor and a normal metal cools the latter. While the study of such devices has long been focussed to structures of submicron size and consequently cooling power in the picoWatt range, we have led a thorough study of devices with a large cooling power up to the nanoWatt range. Here we describe how their performance can be optimized by using a quasi-particle drain and tuning the cooling junctions' tunnel barrier

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-performance electronic cooling with superconducting tunnel junctions

Courtois

Nguyễn

Winkelmann

et al. 2016

Comptes Rendus. Physique

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“…With such provisions temperature reduction of a factor 5, from 150 mK down to 30 mK, and a cooling power of the order of one nanowatt has been achieved. An additional improvement of cooling performance can be reached by utilization of the secondstage SINIS cooler actively evacuating quasiparticles out of the hot superconductor, especially in the low-temperature limit [108]. The working principle of the device is following: back sides of the main cooler are connected to two other SINIS coolers.…”

Section: Nonequilibrium Electron Coolingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relaxation of Nonequilibrium Quasiparticles in Mesoscopic Size Superconductors

Arutyunov,

Chernyaev,

Karabassov

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Rapid development of micro-and nanofabrication methods have provoked interest and enabled experimental studies of electronic properties of a vast class of (sub)micrometersize solid state systems. Mesoscopic-size hybrid structures, containing superconducting elements, have become interesting objects for basic research studies and various applications, ranging from medical and astrophysical sensors to quantum computing. One of the most important aspects of physics, governing the behavior of such systems, is the finite concentration of nonequilibrium quasiparticles, present in a superconductor even well below the temperature of superconducting transition. Those nonequilibrium excitations might limit the performance of a variety of superconducting devices, like superconducting qubits, singleelectron turnstiles and microrefrigerators. On the contrary, in some applications, like detectors of electromagnetic radiation, the nonequilibrium state is essential for their operation. It is therefore of vital importance to study the mechanisms of nonequilibrium quasiparticle relaxation in superconductors of mesoscopic dimensions, where the whole structure can be considered as an 'interface'. At early stages of research the problem was mostly studied in relatively massive systems and at high temperatures close to the critical temperature of a superconductor. We review the recent progress in studies of nonequilibrium quasiparticle relaxation in superconductors including the low temperature limit. We also discuss the open physical questions and perspectives of development in the field.

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“…The thermal isolation necessary for the iso-entropic process requires low operating temperatures of our cooler in order to decouple the electronic system from the phonon bath 19,20,46 , as already demonstrated in many advanced nanotechnologies 37,47,48 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermodynamic cycles in Josephson junctions

Vischi

Carrega

Virtanen

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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A superconductor/normal metal/superconductor Josephson junction is a coherent electron system where the thermodynamic entropy depends on temperature and difference of phase across the weak-link. Here, exploiting the phase-temperature thermodynamic diagram of a thermally isolated system, we argue that a cooling effect can be achieved when the phase drop across the junction is brought from 0 to π in a iso - entropic process. We show that iso - entropic cooling can be enhanced with proper choice of geometrical and electrical parameters of the junction, i.e. by increasing the ratio between supercurrent and total junction volume. We present extensive numerical calculations using quasi-classical Green function methods for a short junction and we compare them with analytical results. Interestingly, we demonstrate that phase-coherent thermodynamic cycles can be implemented by combining iso - entropic and iso - phasic processes acting on the weak-link, thereby engineering the coherent version of thermal machines such as engines and cooling systems. We therefore evaluate their performances and the minimum temperature achievable in a cooling cycle.

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Cascade Electronic Refrigerator Using Superconducting Tunnel Junctions

Cited by 21 publications

References 48 publications

High-performance electronic cooling with superconducting tunnel junctions

High-performance electronic cooling with superconducting tunnel junctions

Relaxation of Nonequilibrium Quasiparticles in Mesoscopic Size Superconductors

Thermodynamic cycles in Josephson junctions

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