A superconducting full-wave bridge rectifier

TL;DR

This paper presents a superconducting full-wave bridge rectifier using niobium nitride micro-bridges, demonstrating high-frequency rectification, tunable polarity, and integration into complex circuits for efficient power conversion at cryogenic temperatures.

Contribution

It introduces a robust superconducting diode with tunable polarity and demonstrates its integration into a full-wave rectifier circuit, enabling high-frequency AC-to-DC conversion.

Findings

Achieved 43% peak rectification efficiency.

Demonstrated continuous rectification up to 3 MHz.

Converted 50 MHz AC signals with 50% peak power efficiency.

Abstract

Superconducting thin-film electronics are attractive for their low power consumption, fast operating speeds, and ease of interface with cryogenic systems such as single-photon detector arrays, and quantum computing devices. However, the lack of a reliable superconducting two-terminal asymmetric device, analogous to a semiconducting diode, limits the development of power-handling circuits, fundamental for scaling up these technologies. Existing efforts to date have been limited to single-diode proofs of principle and lacked integration of multiple controllable and reproducible devices to form complex circuits. Here, we demonstrate a robust superconducting diode with tunable polarity using the asymmetric vortex surface barrier in niobium nitride micro-bridges, achieving a 43% peak rectification efficiency, and showing half-wave rectification up to 120 MHz. We then realize and integrate several such diodes into a bridge rectifier circuit on a single microchip that performs continuous full-wave rectification up to 3 MHz and AC-to-DC conversion of a 50 MHz signal in periodic bursts with an estimated peak power efficiency of 50%.