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Measurement of quantum noise in a single-electron transistor near the quantum limit

Nature Physics volume 5, pages 660–664 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Quantum measurement has challenged physicists for almost a century. Classically, there is no lower bound on the noise a measurement may add. Quantum mechanically, however, measuring a system necessarily perturbs it. When applied to electrical amplifiers, this means that improved sensitivity requires increased backaction that itself contributes noise. The result is a strict quantum limit on added amplifier noise1,2,3,4,5,6. To approach this limit, a quantum-limited amplifier must possess an ideal balance between sensitivity and backaction; furthermore, its noise must dominate that of subsequent classical amplifiers7. Here, we report the first complete and quantitative measurement of the quantum noise of a superconducting single-electron transistor (S-SET) near a double Cooper-pair resonance predicted to have the right combination of sensitivity and backaction8. A simultaneous measurement of our S-SET’s charge sensitivity indicates that it operates within a factor of 3.6 of the quantum limit, a fourfold improvement over the nearest comparable results9.

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Figure 1: Experimental method for quantum noise measurements.
Figure 2: Subgap transport in the S-SET.
Figure 3: Noise and reflected power measurements.
Figure 4: Quantum noise of the S-SET.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the ARO under Agreement No. W911NF-06-1-0312, by the NSF under Grant Nos DMR-0804488 and DMR-0804477 and by the NSA, LPS and ARO under Agreement No. W911-NF-08-1-0482. We thank T. J. Gilheart, M. Bal and F. Chen for experimental assistance.

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Author notes

  1. W. W. Xue and Z. Ji: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, 6127 Wilder Laboratory, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA

    W. W. Xue, Feng Pan, Joel Stettenheim, M. P. Blencowe & A. J. Rimberg

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA

    Z. Ji

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  1. W. W. Xue
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  2. Z. Ji
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  5. M. P. Blencowe
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Contributions

A.J.R. planned the experiment. W.W.X. and Z.J. fabricated the samples. W.W.X. carried out the measurements with assistance from Z.J., F.P. and J.S. M.P.B. proposed the method of analysis. W.W.X. and A.J.R. analysed the data. A.J.R. and J.S. wrote the paper with input from W.W.X. and M.P.B.

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Correspondence to A. J. Rimberg.

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Xue, W., Ji, Z., Pan, F. et al. Measurement of quantum noise in a single-electron transistor near the quantum limit. Nature Phys 5, 660–664 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1339

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