Cooling of bulk material by electron-tunneling refrigerators

Clark, Anthony C.; Miller, N. A.; Williams, A. J.; Ruggiero, S. T.; Hilton, G. C.; Vale, Leila R.; Beall, James A.; Irwin, K. D.; Ullom, Joel N.

doi:10.1063/1.1914966

Cited by 86 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…This has been the method by which NISbased phonon coolers, i.e., refrigerators of the lattice, have been realized experimentally utilizing thin silicon nitride films and narrow silicon nitride bridges ͑Man-ninen et al Fisher et al, 1999;Luukanen et al, 2000;Clark et al, 2005͒. These devices are discussed in detail in Sec.…”

Section: G Heat Transport By Phononsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One well-established application of SINIS refrigerators concerns lattice cooling ͑Manninen et al Luukanen et al, 2000;Clark et al, 2005͒. As a matter of fact, while NIS tunneling directly cools the electron gas of the normal electrode, the phonon system can be refrigerated through electron-phonon coupling ͓see Eq.…”

Section: Application Of "Si…nis Structures To Lattice Refrigerationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, deposited films are often used as interlevel dielectrics for metals, for lithographic masking in diffusion and implantation processes, as well as for passivation and protective layers ͑Ghandhi, 1983; Nicollian and Brews, 1983;Sze, 1985͒. In addition, they can be used as thin amorphous membranes on which microstructured and nanostructured devices are realized ͑Nahum and Martinis, 1995; Irwin et al, 1996;Fisher et al, 1999;Luukanen et al, 2000;Clark et al, 2005;Lanting et al, 2005͒ in light of their specific electric and thermal properties ͑Manninen et al, 1997; Leivo and Pekola, 1998;Leoni et al, 2003͒. In the following we discuss those insulators which are considered relevant for microelectronic fabrication processing, i.e., silicon dioxide and silicon nitride.…”

Section: Thin-film Insulatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Opportunities for mesoscopics in thermometry and refrigeration: Physics and applications

et al. 2006

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This review presents an overview of the thermal properties of mesoscopic structures. The discussion is based on the concept of electron energy distribution, and, in particular, on controlling and probing it. The temperature of an electron gas is determined by this distribution: refrigeration is equivalent to narrowing it, and thermometry is probing its convolution with a function characterizing the measuring device. Temperature exists, strictly speaking, only in quasiequilibrium in which the distribution follows the Fermi-Dirac form. Interesting nonequilibrium deviations can occur due to slow relaxation rates of the electrons, e.g., among themselves or with lattice phonons. Observation and applications of nonequilibrium phenomena are also discussed. The focus in this paper is at low temperatures, primarily below 4 K, where physical phenomena on mesoscopic scales and hybrid combinations of various types of materials, e.g., superconductors, normal metals, insulators, and doped semiconductors, open up a rich variety of device concepts. This review starts with an introduction to theoretical concepts and experimental results on thermal properties of mesoscopic structures. Then thermometry and refrigeration are examined with an emphasis on experiments. An immediate application of solid-state refrigeration and thermometry is in ultrasensitive radiation detection, which is discussed in depth. This review concludes with a summary of pertinent fabrication methods of presented devices.

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Section: G Heat Transport By Phononsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Application Of "Si…nis Structures To Lattice Refrigerationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Thin-film Insulatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Opportunities for mesoscopics in thermometry and refrigeration: Physics and applications

et al. 2006

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“…The effect can be made to be more pronounced in a symmetric double-junction SINIS structure with a small N island contacted to S leads via two NIS junctions, 15 allowing to construct practical solid-state refrigerators for cooling thin-film detectors to temperatures close to 100 mK. 16,17 The performance of actual devices depends crucially on the relaxation of the QPs that are injected into the S electrode, as the superconductor overheating diminishes the cooling power at a NIS junction because of enhanced QP backtunneling. The excess QP density close to the junction can be diminished by ©2011 American Physical Society fabricating very thick S electrodes, 16 or covering them partially by a layer of normal metal that acts as a QP trap.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Magnetic-field-induced stabilization of nonequilibrium superconductivity in a normal-metal/insulator/superconductor junction

Peltonen¹,

Muhonen

Meschke³

et al. 2011

Phys. Rev. B

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A small magnetic field is found to enhance relaxation processes in a superconductor, thus stabilizing superconductivity in nonequilibrium conditions. In a normal-metal (N)/insulator/superconductor (S) tunnel junction, applying a field of the order of 100 μT leads to significantly improved cooling of the N island by quasiparticle (QP) tunneling. These findings are attributed to faster QP relaxation within the S electrodes as a result of enhanced QP drain through regions with a locally suppressed energy gap due to magnetic vortices in the S leads at some distance from the junction. Introduction. In this Rapid Communication, we report an observation that appears counterintuitive at first: A small magnetic field is found to stabilize superconductivity under quasiparticle (QP) injection. In our experiment, the cooling power of normal-metal (N)/insulator (I)/superconductor (S) tunnel structures is enhanced in perpendicular magnetic fields B ⊥ 100 μT = 1 G. A measured maximum temperature drop δT relative to a starting bath temperature T 0 = 285 mK exhibiting this behavior is shown in Fig. 1(a). The improvement is unexpected, as in general the effect of a magnetic field is to suppress superconductivity. Electronic cooling in NIS junctions in the presence of magnetic fields in both perpendicular and parallel orientations has been studied before, 1 but only in higher fields where the cooling power was already reduced due to a diminishing superconducting energy gap . On the other hand, the creation of magnetic vortices 2 has been shown to enhance QP relaxation in superconducting aluminum, as the QPs become trapped and thermalize in the regions of a reduced energy gap. 3 Here we demonstrate that the additional relaxation channel due to an enhanced QP drain through regions occupied by magnetic vortices enhances the superconducting performance of S leads and improves the electronic cooling in NIS junctions. This can be of relevance in superconducting qubits, 4-7 resonators, 8 and in hybrid SINIS turnstiles 9 in reducing the effects from nonequilibrium and residual QPs arising due to drive and microwave radiation from the environment. Moreover, improved relaxation caused by vortex creation in the S leads can partially explain the "reentrant superconductivity" observed in Zn and Al nanowires. 10,11 In the present case, as sketched in Fig. 1(a), vortex formation in the S electrodes away from the NIS junction improves relaxation of the injected QPs and leads to enhanced cooling of the N island. In higher fields, vortices move closer to the junction, deteriorating the cooling power.In a NIS junction, acts as an energy filter for the tunneling QP. [12][13][14][15] At low temperatures k B T and for bias voltages eV across the junction, the electrons in the N electrode cool considerably below the phonon temperature by hot QP extraction. The effect can be made to be more pronounced in a symmetric double-junction SINIS structure with a small N

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“…Mesoscopic electron systems [1][2][3][4][5][6], superconducting qubits [7,8], and nanomechanical oscillators [9,10] are among the systems of interest in this respect. The electron cooler holds the promise in applications, for instance, in space-borne radio astronomy, where it would present an easy-to-use, lightweight solution for noise reduction, with the further benefit of saving energy.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%