Abstract
Recent experimental demonstration of the quantum coherent phase slip and current quantization in the superconductors, the fundamental phenomena dual to the coherent Cooper pair tunneling and voltage quantization (Shapiro steps), enables the development of a new quantum device, the Bloch transistor (BT). BT has a unique functionality: it can deliver quantized non-dissipative current to the quantum circuit. BT consists of two coupled Josephson Junctions (JJ) in the regime of coherent quantum phase slip. At the heart of the BT operation is a new mechanism for phase-locking the Bloch oscillations in JJs to microwaves via induced charge. The charge phase locking allows not only quantization of current but also gate voltage control of this quantization through the Aharonov-Casher effect. We study the operation of the BT and analyze its parameters. BT technology is scalable and compatible with other superconducting quantum devices, making it part of an emerging cryogenic quantum technology platform.
Data availability
The data generated in this study have been deposited in the Open Science Framework repository. They can be obtained without any restriction at (https://osf.io/a8nhp). Additional information, experimental curves, and schemes are also provided in the Supplementary Information.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Grant No. EP/Y022637/1, European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under Grant Agreement 20FUN07 SuperQuant. K.H.K. acknowledges support of MSIT grant IITP-2025-RS-2024- 00437191.
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O.V.A., R.S.S., E.V.I. and V.N.A. conceived and supervised the experiments. R.S.S., K.H.K., S.L. and I.A. fabricated BT and performed measurements at low temperatures. All authors contributed to the analysis and simulations of the data. E.V.I., D.G., I.A. and V.N.A. wrote the manuscript, and all authors contributed to editing the manuscript.
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Antonov, I., Shaikhaidarov, R.S., Kim, K.H. et al. The microwave phase locking in Bloch transistor. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67735-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67735-z
