Characterization of Dissipation Due to Quasiparticles and Dielectric Loss in a Josephson Metamaterial.

Hassel, J.; Lähteenmäki, P.; Timofeev, A.; Paraoanu, G. S.; Hakonen, P. J.

Josephson junctions can be arranged in a metamaterial configuration, forming an artificial one-dimensional medium for microwave propagation, which enables fast tuning of the speed of light by an external magnetic field. This metamaterial has been used for parametric amplification and as a demonstrator of the dynamical Casimir effect. An important property of metamaterial-based devices is damping, which is fundamentally limited by mechanisms related to the Josephson junctions themselves. In this paper we derive theoretical models for two such mechanisms, the quasiparticle tunneling and the dielectric loss within the material of the tunnel barrier. We discuss whether the junction-based effects are likely to be the limiting factors in the experimentally observed quality factors of metamaterial-based resonators.

JOSEPHSON junctions; METAMATERIALS; MICROWAVE propagation; SUPERCONDUCTING quantum interference devices; CASIMIR effect; DIELECTRIC loss

PIERS Proceedings, 2013, p484

1559-9450

Academic Journal