Microwave resonator for measuring time-reversal symmetry breaking at cryogenic temperatures

We present a microwave-frequency method for measuring the polar Kerr effect and spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking (TRSB) in unconventional superconductors. While this experiment is motivated by work performed in the near infrared using zero-loop-area Sagnac interferometers, the microwave implementation is quite different and is based on the doubly degenerate modes of a TE111 cavity resonator, which act as polarization states analogous to those of light. The resonator system has in situ actuators that allow quadrupolar distortions of the resonator shape to be controllably tuned, as these compete with the much smaller perturbations that arise from TRSB. The most reliable way to detect the TRSB signal is by interrogating the two-mode resonator system with circularly polarized microwaves, in which case the presence of TRSB shows up unambiguously as a difference between the forward and reverse transmission responses of the resonator-i.e., as a breaking of reciprocity. We illustrate and characterize a coupler system that generates and detects circularly polarized microwaves and then show how these are integrated with the TE111 resonator, resulting in a dilution refrigerator implementation with a base temperature of 20 mK. We show test data on yttrium-iron-garnet ferrite and the van der Waals ferromagnet CrGeTe3 as an illustration of how the system operates. We then present data showing system performance under realistic conditions at millikelvin temperatures, achieving a Kerr-angle resolution δθK = 810 nrad for a 2 × 2 mm2 sample, approaching the resolution of an optical Sagnac interferometer.