RESUMEN
The uniformity of the barriers in Josephson junctions (JJs) is a critical parameter in determining performance and operating margins for a wide variety of superconducting electronic circuits. We present an automated measurement system capable of measuring individual JJs across a 1 × 1 cm die at both ambient temperature and 4 K. This technique allows visualization of the spatial variation over a large area of the critical electrical properties of the junctions and allows for the direct correlation between room-temperature (RT) resistance and low temperature properties. The critical current variation of NbxSi1-x (x = 15%) barriers is found to be about 2.6% (one standard deviation) for 1024 junctions across an individual die and only weakly correlates with RT resistance measurements.
RESUMEN
Neuromorphic computing promises to markedly improve the efficiency of certain computational tasks, such as perception and decision-making. Although software and specialized hardware implementations of neural networks have made tremendous accomplishments, both implementations are still many orders of magnitude less energy efficient than the human brain. We demonstrate a new form of artificial synapse based on dynamically reconfigurable superconducting Josephson junctions with magnetic nanoclusters in the barrier. The spiking energy per pulse varies with the magnetic configuration, but in our demonstration devices, the spiking energy is always less than 1 aJ. This compares very favorably with the roughly 10 fJ per synaptic event in the human brain. Each artificial synapse is composed of a Si barrier containing Mn nanoclusters with superconducting Nb electrodes. The critical current of each synapse junction, which is analogous to the synaptic weight, can be tuned using input voltage spikes that change the spin alignment of Mn nanoclusters. We demonstrate synaptic weight training with electrical pulses as small as 3 aJ. Further, the Josephson plasma frequencies of the devices, which determine the dynamical time scales, all exceed 100 GHz. These new artificial synapses provide a significant step toward a neuromorphic platform that is faster, more energy-efficient, and thus can attain far greater complexity than has been demonstrated with other technologies.
RESUMEN
The longitudinal magneto-optical Kerr effect is used to obtain a calibrated measure of the dynamic magnetization response over the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) profile for in-plane magnetized Permalloy films excited with high power in-plane transverse microwave fields at 1.25 to 3.75 GHz and in-plane precession angles up to about 20 degrees. The data provide a profound demonstration of the Suhl threshold effect for parametric spin wave generation for angles above about 14 degrees, the magnetization precession lock-up just above threshold, and the complicated response over the full FMR profile at very high powers.