Simulation of Quantum Parametric Amplifiers

Abstract

Parametric amplifiers couple a nonlinear element to an external environment, resulting in frequency mixing of a pump tone and a smaller signal tone. The pump’s energy is coupled into the signal tone and an additional idler tone. Josephson parametric amplifiers have achieved near quantum limited performance, and they are well-suited for qubit readout in quantum computing applications. They use the Josephson junction’s nonlinear inductance to create a nonlinear resonator. While there has been much research done on these Josephson parametric amplifiers, there has not yet been a parametric amplifier which uses quantum phase-slip junctions. Quantum phase-slip junctions are the voltage-based counterpart to the current-based Josephson junction. This thesis uses simulations to design and analyze quantum phase-slip junction based parametric amplifiers. The simulation data shown in this thesis demonstrates frequency mixing and gain of the signal tone, two important characteristics of a working parametric amplifier. This thesis also shows simulation experiments on various aspects of the quantum phase-slip based parametric amplifier, including the critical voltage and bias voltage of the quantum phase-slip junctions.