Bandwidth and dynamic range of a widely tunable Josephson parametric amplifier

TL;DR

This paper characterizes a new tunable Josephson parametric amplifier, focusing on its bandwidth, dynamic range, and saturation power, demonstrating its suitability for quantum information applications.

Contribution

It introduces a Josephson parametric amplifier with a full octave tunable bandwidth and provides detailed measurements of its bandwidth, dynamic range, and saturation power.

Findings

Amplifier can tune over a full octave of bandwidth.

It exhibits good noise performance and 10 dB vacuum noise squeezing.

The paper reports specific measurements of bandwidth, dynamic range, and saturation power.

Abstract

The ability to manipulate quantum information encoded in microwave fields has led to a renewed interest in Josephson parametric amplifiers (JPAs). For these applications the ability of JPAs to amplify signals with the least amount of added noise is critical. Unfortunately JPAs are typically narrow band amplifiers with small dynamic range. It is therefore important to understand the bandwidth and dynamic range of any particular JPA in order to determine if it is appropriate for these applications. We recently introduced a new kind of JPA. Although it is still narrow band, the amplified band can be tuned over a full octave. We have shown that it has good noise performance and can squeeze the vacuum noise by 10 dB. Here we characterize other important parameters of this amplifier, specifically the signal-bandwidth, dynamic range and saturation power.