Optimal Design of a Traveling-Wave Kinetic Inductance Amplifier Operated in Three-Wave Mixing Mode
ORAL
Abstract
In the presence of a DC bias, an injected pump, of frequency $f_P$, and a signal, of frequency $f_S$, undergo parametric three-way mixing (3WM) within a traveling-wave kinetic inductance (KIT) amplifier, producing an idler product of frequency $f_I=f_P-f_S$. [M. R. Vissers, R. P. Erickson, H.-S. Ku, Leila Vale, Xian Wu, G. C. Hilton, and D. P. Pappas, Appl. Phys. Lett. 108, 012601 (2016).] Periodic frequency stops are engineered into the coplanar waveguide of the device to enhance signal amplification. With $f_P$ placed just above the first frequency stop gap, 3WM broadband signal gain is achieved with maximum gain at $f_S=f_P/2$. Within a theory of the dispersion of traveling waves in the presence of these engineered loadings [R. P. Erickson and D. P. Pappas, to be submitted to Phys. Rev. B.], which accounts for this broadband signal gain, we show how an optimal frequency-stop design may be constructed to achieve maximum signal amplification. The optimization approach we describe can be applied to the design of other nonlinear traveling-wave parametric amplifiers.
*This work was supported by the Army Research Office and the Laboratory for Physical Sciences under EAO221146, EAO241777, and the NIST Quantum Initiative. RPE acknowledges grant 60NANB14D024 from the US Department of Commerce, NIST.
–