Trapping hot quasi-particles in a high-power superconducting electronic cooler

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to improve high-power superconducting electronic coolers by effectively removing hot quasi-particles, achieving significant cooling from 300 mK to 130 mK with a 400 pW power, using a metallic drain and tunnel barrier.

Contribution

The study introduces a metallic drain connected via a tunnel barrier to trap hot quasi-particles, enhancing cooling performance in high-power superconducting devices.

Findings

Achieved cooling from 300 mK to 130 mK

Demonstrated effective quasi-particle trapping with metallic drain

Supported results with a simple thermal model

Abstract

The performance of hybrid superconducting electronic coolers is usually limited by the accumulation of hot quasi-particles in the superconducting leads. This issue is all the more stringent in large-scale and high-power devices, as required by applications. Introducing a metallic drain connected to the superconducting electrodes via a fine-tuned tunnel barrier, we efficiently remove quasi-particles and obtain electronic cooling from 300 mK down to 130 mK with a 400 pW cooling power. A simple thermal model accounts for the experimental observations.