Efficient electronic cooling by niobium-based superconducting tunnel junctions
Replacing the bulky cryoliquid-based cooling stages of cryoenabled instruments by chip-scale refrigeration is envisioned to disruptively reduce the system size similar to microprocessors did for computers. Electronic refrigerators based on superconducting tunnel junctions have been anticipated to provide a solution, but reaching the necessary above the 1-K operation temperature range has remained a goal out of reach for several decades. We show efficient electronic refrigeration by $\mathrm{Al}$-${\mathrm{Al}\mathrm{O}}_{x}$-$\mathrm{Nb}$ superconducting tunnel junctions starting from bath temperatures above 2 K. The junctions can deliver electronic cooling power up to approximately $\mathrm{mW}/{\mathrm{mm}}^{2}$, which enables us to demonstrate tunnel-current-driven electron temperature reduction from 2.4 K to below 1.6 K (34% relative cooling) against the phonon bath. Our work shows that the key material of integrated superconducting circuits---niobium---enables powerful cryogenic refrigerator technology. This result is a prerequisite for practical cryogenic chip-scale refrigerators and, at the same time, it introduces a new electrothermal tool for quantum heat-transport experiments.
Authors
- R. P. Loreto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7524-8284)
- Joonas Govenius (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7208-9556)
- J. S. Lehtinen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5334-016X)
- Christopher W. Förbom (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1023-0447)
- Klaara Viisanen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4764-5266)
- Visa Vesterinen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2215-9429)
- J.-P. Kaikkonen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4152-2804)
- Joel Hätinen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9765-4793)
- Om Prakash (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9492-4946)
- Alberto Ronzani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9884-5498)
- E. T. Mannila (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7853-5246)
- Mika Prunnila (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5345-1660)
- Mikael Kervinen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0164-9173)
- E. Mykkänen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8099-4831)
- A. Kemppinen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1186-5566)
- T. Rantanen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2213-3118)
- J. Geisor (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8611-7040)
- Mário Ribeiro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-1427-5257)
Institutions
- VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (FI)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Applied
- Published
- 2024-12-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevapplied.22.064048
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.55
Funders
- Academy of Finland
- Teknologiateollisuuden 100-Vuotisjuhlasäätiö
- Business Finland
- Seventh Framework Programme