Speaker
Description
Superconducting circuits have proven to be one of the most promising platforms for quantum computing and sensing applications with Josephson junctions as one of their fundamental building blocks. Therefore, a reliable fabrication process and characterization apparatus of these components is of crucial importance for every experimental group in this field.
Traditional characterization of these components consists in a study of their Current-Voltage (IV) characteristic. Measurement setups typically rely on commercial functions generators and oscilloscopes to bias and read the response of the junction, respectively. These instruments, despite being user-friendly, are often very expensive if one wishes to reach a high resolution and dynamic range.
In this contribution we present an alternative, amplification-free approach. Based on a sound-card designed for high-fidelity music applications which, for a fraction of the cost of oscilloscopes and function generators, offers a high resolution and dynamic range. The selected sound-card is designed to be integrated with a Raspberry Pi single-board computer making it easily configurable. We have verified the functionality of our approach characterizing cross-type Al/Al-Ox/Al Josephson junctions microfabricated at FBK.
