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# Cryogenic Tests of Volume-Phase Holographic Gratings: I. Results at 200 𝐾

## 1 Introduction

Volume-Phase Holographic (VPH) gratings potentially have many advantages over classical surface-relief gratings (Barden, Arns, & Colburn 1998; see also Barden et al. 2000), and are planned to be used in a number of forthcoming instruments (e.g., AA$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$; Bridges et al. 2002). While applications to optical spectrographs only are currently being considered, VPH gratings will also be useful to near-infrared spectrographs if the performance at low temperatures is satisfactory. In particular, its diffraction efficiency and angular dispersion should be confirmed. Contraction of dichromated gelatin with decreasing temperature could cause variations in the line density and profile of diffraction efficiency (the thickness of the gelatin layer is one of the parameters defining diffraction efficiency). Since cooling and heating cycles might cause some deterioration of a VPH grating and reduce its life time, we also need to see whether these characteristics vary with the successive cycles.

In this paper, results from measurements of a sample grating at 200 $`K`$ and at room temperature are presented. A picture of the grating investigated is shown in Figure 1. This grating was manufactured by Ralcon Development Lab, and its diameter is about 25 cm. The line density is 385 lines/mm and thus the peak of diffraction efficiency is around 1.3 $`\mu `$m at the Bragg condition when the incident angle of an input beam to the normal of the grating surface is 15. The measurements are performed at wavelengths from 0.9 $`\mu `$m to 1.6 $`\mu `$m. The target temperature, size and line density of the grating, and wavelengths investigated are nearly the same as those adopted for the Fibre-Multi Object Spectrograph (FMOS; e.g., Kimura et al. 2003), which is one of the next generation instruments for the 8.2m Subaru telescope with commissioning expected in 2004: this instrument will be observing at wavelengths from 0.9 $`\mu `$m to 1.8 $`\mu `$m, and a VPH grating will be used as an anti-dispersing element in the near-infrared spectrograph which is operated at $``$ 200 $`K`$ to reduce thermal noise.

## 2 Pre-test at Room Temperature

Before starting measurements using the cryogenic test facility (see next section), we investigated the diffraction efficiency of the VPH grating at a room temperature. The measurements were performed manually on the optical bench. The procedures and results obtained are summarised below.

### 2.1 Measurements

In Figure 2, the overall configuration of the optical components used for the measurements is indicated (the detailed information for the main components are listed in Table 1). Light exiting from the monochromator is collimated and used as an input beam to illuminate the central portion of the VPH grating. The spectral band-width of this input beam is set by adjusting the width of the output slit of the monochromator. The slit width and the corresponding spectral band-width were set to 0.5 mm and $``$ 0.01 $`\mu `$m, respectively, throughout the measurements; the beam diameter was set to $``$ 2 cm by using an iris at the exit of the lamp house.

The input beam is diffracted by the grating and the camera, composed of lenses and a near-infrared detector (320 $`\times `$ 256 InGaAs array), is scanned so as to capture the diffracted beam. The output slit of the monochromator is thus re-imaged on the detector. Since the detector has some sensitivity at visible wavelengths, a visible blocking filter which is transparent at wavelengths longer than 0.75 $`\mu `$m is inserted after the monochromator to reduce contamination of visible light from a higher order.

The basic measurement procedures are as follows. First, the brightness of the lamp and the wavelength of light exiting from the monochromator are fixed (the brightness of the lamp is kept constant by a stabilised power supply during the measurement cycle at a given wavelength), and the total intensity included in the image of the slit is measured without the VPH grating. Then, the VPH grating is inserted at an angle to the optical axis, and the intensities of the zero and first order ($`+1`$) diffracted light are measured. The diffraction angle is also recorded. Next, the grating is set at a different incident angle and the intensities of the diffracted light and diffraction angles are measured. After these measurements are repeated for all the incident angles of interest, a different wavelength is chosen and the same sequence is repeated. The brightness of the lamp can be changed when moving from one wavelength to another: a higher brightness was used at shorter wavelengths because the system throughput is lower.

### 2.2 Results

In Figure 3, the diffraction efficiencies measured are plotted against wavelengths for the cases where incident angles are 15 (upper panel) and 20 (lower panel). Open and solid dots show the efficiency profiles for the zero and first order ($`+1`$) diffracted light, respectively. Since random errors are dominated by fluctuations of the bias level of the detector on a short time scale ($`0.11`$ sec), the error bars plotted are calculated from a typical value of the fluctuations. It is found from this figure that particularly for the incident angle of 15 , the peak of the diffraction efficiency reaches $``$ 80% and the efficiency exceeds 50% over the wavelength range from 0.9 $`\mu `$m to 1.6 $`\mu `$m. The profiles can be well reproduced by theoretical calculations based on the coupled wave analysis (Kogelnik 1969), which are shown by the solid lines in the figure. In these calculations, a thickness of the dichromated gelatin layer of 12 $`\mu `$m and a refractive index modulation amplitude of 0.05 are assumed. Energy losses by surface reflections at boundaries between glass and air ($``$ 10%) are also included. Although the energy losses at boundaries between glass and gelatin are likely to be much smaller because their refractive indices are very similar, they might explain that the measured diffraction efficiency tends to be slightly lower than the theoretical calculation. (The energy lost by internal absorption of the dichromated gelatin layer is estimated to be $``$ 1% below 1.8 $`\mu `$m; e.g., Barden et al. 1998).

## 3 Cryogenic Test

In the following, we describe the measurements at 200 $`K`$ as well as those at a room temperature, both of which were performed using the cryogenic test facility as shown below. Throughout these measurements, we used a different VPH grating from that used in the pre-test at room temperature, although both have the same specifications.

### 3.1 Measurements

In Figures 4, schematic views of the fore-optics and the optics inside the cryogenic chamber are indicated. Pictures of these facilities are shown in Figure 5. The fore-optics and light path before the window of the cryogenic chamber and the camera are the same as those used in the warm pre-test. The slit width and the spectral band-width were set to 0.1 mm and $``$ 2.0 $`\times 10^3\mu `$m, respectively, throughout the measurements, and the beam diameter was set to $``$ 2 cm by using an iris before the window. The light path in the cryogenic chamber is described as follows: the input beam illuminates the central portion of the VPH grating and is diffracted by the grating. The diffracted light is captured by scanning the pick-off arm and is delivered to the camera on the top of the chamber by 3 pick-off mirrors. The output slit of the monochromator is thus re-imaged onto the detector. This procedure enables measurements to be made at a variety of incident and diffraction angles without having to mount the detector inside the cryostat.

The measurement procedures are the same as those in the pre-test, except that all the measurements were performed with the VPH grating in place. We initially perform the measurements at a room temperature ($``$ 280 $`K`$). Then, we repeat the measurements at 200 $`K`$ before returning to 280 $`K`$ to repeat the cycle. When we cool the VPH grating, we monitor the temperature of the grating with a sensor on the surface, close to the edge of the grating but unilluminated by the input beam. When the temperature reaches $`200K`$, we switch off the compressor and cold heads before starting the measurements. Although we do not have any thermostatic systems to maintain a given temperature, it takes several hours for the temperature of the grating to start increasing and go above 200 $`K`$ after the compressor and cold heads are switched off. Thus the temperature of the grating stays approximately at 200 $`\pm `$ 5 $`K`$ for the duration of the measurement cycle.

### 3.2 Results and Discussions

The following results were obtained when the incident angle was set to $`15^{}`$, which gives the peak of diffraction efficiency around 1.3 $`\mu `$m when satisfying the Bragg condition. We note that the same trends are obtained from measurements when different incident angles are adopted.

#### 3.2.1 Variation of diffraction efficiency

In the upper panel of Figure 6, differences of diffraction efficiencies in a sequence of measurements at 200 $`K`$ from those obtained in the first warm test (280 $`K`$) are plotted against wavelengths. The error bars are calculated from the typical fluctuation of the bias level of the detector. The errors are larger at shorter wavelengths because the system throughput is lower so that the bias level fluctuation is larger compared to the intensity of the slit images (the brightness of the lamp is kept constant with a stabilised power supply throughout the measurements at all the wavelengths). It is found that the differences are close to zero at all the wavelengths, suggesting that there is no significant variation in profile of diffraction efficiency such as a global decrease in the efficiency or a lateral shift of the peak. In the lower panels, the differences in diffraction efficiency are averaged over the wavelength range, and the averaged difference from the first warm test is plotted against cycle number. Open triangles and solid dots represent the measurements at 200 $`K`$ and those at 280 $`K`$, respectively. The error bars indicate the standard deviation of a distribution of the differences around the average value. These results suggest that the diffraction efficiency of a VPH grating is nearly independent of temperature, at least between 200 $`K`$ and 280 $`K`$, and that no significant deterioration is caused by a small number of heating and cooling cycles.

#### 3.2.2 Variation of angular dispersion

In the upper panel of Figure 7, difference of diffraction angle from the prediction for the line density of 385 lines/mm (the nominal line density of the VPH grating) is plotted against wavelength; solid line (zero level) corresponds to the relationship between diffraction angle and wavelength for the line density of 385 lines/mm. Dotted and dashed lines indicate the relationships predicted for a line density of 375 and 395 lines/mm, respectively. The data points show the actual measurements at 280 $`K`$.111Although this plot may suggest that the line density of the VPH grating is slightly smaller than 385 lines/mm, precise definition of the line density through measurements is beyond the scope of this paper. As the arrow shows, if the gelatin layer shrinks with decreasing temperature, the line density would increase and the data points would shift upwards on this plot.

In the lower panel, the difference of diffraction angle from that measured in the first warm test is plotted against the number of cycles. The symbols have the same meanings as those in Figure 6. Again, each data point represents the difference averaged over the wavelength range, and the error bars indicate the standard deviation of the distribution of the differences around the average value. The lower panel suggests that at 200 $`K`$, the diffraction angle is slightly larger than that at 280 $`K`$. This is equivalent to a slight increase of the line density of the grating, and the simplest explanation for this is a shrinkage of the grating with decreasing temperature. By using this increment of diffraction angle ($``$ 0.1), the amount of shrinkage is estimated to be $`0.5`$% of the diameter of the grating, which is consistent with the amount of shrinkage of the glass substrate expected when the temperature is decreased by 80 $`K`$ (the amount of shrinkage of gelatin would be larger by an order of magnitude). One needs to keep in mind, however, that only a small portion of the VPH grating was illuminated throughout the measurements (the beam diameter was $``$ 2 cm while the diameter of the VPH grating is $``$ 25 cm) and thus a variation of the line density might be difficult to be detected. Investigating larger portions over the VPH grating would be an important future work.

### 3.3 Comparison with other results

Other cryogenic tests of VPH gratings are also in progress by the gOlem group at Brera Astronomical Observatory (Bianco et al. 2003). Their preliminary results suggest that diffraction efficiency is significantly reduced ($``$ 20% around the peak) at $``$ 200 $`K`$ compared with room temperature, which is inconsistent with our results. One consideration here is that there is a significant difference in speed of the cooling and heating processes between the tests of the gOlem group and ours. In the gOlem case, they require only 1 hour to cool a VPH grating down to their target temperature from a room temperature (Zerbi 2001). With the cryogenic chamber used for our experiments, it takes about 15 hours to cool down to 200 $`K`$ from 280 $`K`$. This may imply that rapid cooling and/or heating can cause some deterioration of a VPH grating. Further experiments are required in this area.

## 4 Summary & Conclusion

In this paper, results from the cryogenic tests of a VPH grating at 200 $`K`$ are presented. The aims of these tests were to see whether diffraction efficiency and angular dispersion of a VPH grating are significantly different at a low temperature from those at a room temperature, and to see how many cooling and heating cycles the grating can withstand. We have completed 5 cycles between room temperature and 200 $`K`$, and find that diffraction efficiency and angular dispersion are nearly independent of temperature. This result indicates that VPH gratings can be used in spectrographs cooled down to 200 $`K`$ such as FMOS without any significant deterioration of the performance.

In future, we will be trying more cycles between 200 $`K`$ and 280 $`K`$ to mimic more realistic situations of astronomical use. Measurements at a much lower temperature (e.g., $``$ 80 $`K`$) will also be necessary to see whether VPH gratings are applicable to spectrographs for use in the $`K`$-band. We will report on these issues in a forthcoming paper.

We thank colleagues in Durham for their assistance with this work, particularly Paul Clark, John Bate, and the members of the mechanical workshop. We are also grateful to the anonymous referee for the comments to improve our paper. This work was funded by PPARC Rolling Grant (PPA/G/O/2000/00485).


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# Tailoring Josephson coupling through superconductivity-induced nonequilibrium

## Abstract

The distinctive quasiparticle distribution existing under nonequilibrium in a superconductor-insulator-normal metal-insulator-superconductor (SINIS) mesoscopic line is proposed as a novel tool to control the supercurrent intensity in a long Josephson weak link. We present a description of this system in the framework of the diffusive-limit quasiclassical Green-function theory and take into account the effects of inelastic scattering with arbitrary strength. Supercurrent enhancement and suppression, including a marked transition to a $`\pi `$-junction are striking features leading to a fully tunable structure.

Nonequilibrium effects in mesoscopic superconducting circuits have been receiving a rekindled attention during the last few years articles . The art of controlling Josephson coupling in superconductor-normal metal-superconductor (SNS) weak links is at present in the spotlight: a recent breakthrough in mesoscopic superconductivity is indeed represented by the SNS transistor, where supercurrent suppression as well as its sign reversal ($`\pi `$-transition) were demonstrated baselmans ; baselmansphase . This was achieved by driving the quasiparticle distribution in the weak link far from equilibrium volkov ; wilhelm ; yip  through external voltage terminals, *viz.* normal reservoirs. Such a behavior relies on the two-step shape of the quasiparticle nonequilibrium distribution, typical of diffusive mesoscopic wires and experimentally observed by Pothier and coworkers pothier .

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that it is possible to tailor the quasiparticle distribution through *superconductivity-induced* nonequilibrium in order to implement a unique class of superconducting transistors. This can be achieved when mesoscopic control lines are connected to superconducting reservoirs through tunnel barriers (I), realizing a SINIS channel. The peculiar quasiparticle distribution in the N region, originating from biasing the S terminals, allows one to access several regimes, from supercurrent enhancement with respect to equilibrium to a large amplitude of the $`\pi `$-transition passing through a steep supercurrent suppression. These features are accompanied by a large current gain (up to some $`10^5`$ in the region of larger input impedance) and reduced dissipation. The ultimate operating frequencies available open the way to the exploitation of this scheme for the implementation of ultrafast current amplifiers.

The investigated mesoscopic structure (see Fig. 1) consists of a long diffusive weak link of length $`L_J`$ much larger than the superconducting coherence length ($`\xi _0`$) oriented along the $`x`$ direction. This defines the SNS junction of cross-section $`A_J`$. The superconducting terminals belonging to the SNS junction, labelled SJ (3 and 4), are kept at zero potential. The SINIS control line is oriented along the $`y`$ direction and consists of a normal wire, of length $`L_C`$ and cross-section $`A_C`$, connected through identical tunnel junctions of resistance $`_T`$ to two superconducting reservoirs SC (1 and 2), biased at opposite voltages $`\pm V_C/2`$. The superconducting gaps of SJ and SC ($`\mathrm{\Delta }_J`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_C`$) are in general different.

The supercurrent $`I_J`$ flowing across the SNS junction is given by wilhelm ; yip

$$I_J(V_C)=\frac{\sigma A_J}{eL_J}_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑E[f(E;V_C)f(E;V_C)]\text{Im}[j_E],$$
(1)
and depends on the quasiparticle distribution function $`f(E)`$. In Eq. (1), $`\sigma `$ is the normal-state conductivity which determines the normal-state resistance of the junction according to $`R_N=L_J/\sigma A_J`$. The distribution function $`f`$ reduces to the equilibrium Fermi distribution when $`V_C=0`$. The energy-dependent spectral supercurrent belzig ; tero , $`\mathrm{Im}[j_E]`$, can be calculated by solving the Usadel equations usadel . Following the parametrization of the Green functions given in Ref. belzig , these equations in the N region can be written

$$\begin{array}{c}\hfill j_E=\mathrm{sinh}^2(\theta )_x\chi ,_xj_E=0,\\ \hfill \mathrm{}D_x^2\theta +2iE\mathrm{sinh}\theta +\frac{\mathrm{}D}{2}(_x\chi )^2\mathrm{sinh}(2\theta )=0,\end{array}$$
(2)
where $`D`$ is the diffusion coefficient and $`E`$ is the energy relative to the chemical potential in SJ. $`\theta (x,E)`$ and $`\chi (x,E)`$ are in general complex functions. For perfectly transmissive contacts, the boundary conditions at the SJN interfaces reduce to $`\theta =`$arctanh$`(\mathrm{\Delta }_J/E)`$ and $`\chi =\pm \varphi /2`$ in the reservoirs $`S_J`$, where $`\varphi `$ is the phase difference between the superconductors.

As required by Eq. (1) we must determine the actual quasiparticle distribution in the N region of the SINIS structure. This is controlled by voltage ($`V_C`$) and temperature, and by the amount of inelastic scattering in the control line. In the case of a short control wire with no inelastic interactions, the quasiparticle distribution, according to Ref. Heslinga , is given by

$$f(E,V_C)=\frac{𝒩_1_1+𝒩_2_2}{𝒩_1+𝒩_2},$$
(3)
where $`𝒩_{1,2}=𝒩_{S_C}(E\pm eV_C/2)`$ and $`_{1,2}=^0(E\pm eV_C/2)`$. The former are the BCS densities of states in the reservoirs SC (labeled by 1 and 2 in Fig. 1). $`^0(E)`$ is the Fermi function at lattice temperature $`T`$ lowenote . In this case Eqs. (1) and (3) yield the dimensionless transistor output characteristics shown in Fig. 2(a). The latter plots the supercurrent $`I_J`$ versus control bias $`V_C`$ at different temperatures for a long junction (i.e., $`\mathrm{\Delta }_JE_{Th}^J`$, where $`E_{Th}^J=\mathrm{}D/L_J^2`$ is the Thouless energy of the SNS junction, as this is the limit where the supercurrent spectrum varies strongly with energy). We assumed $`\varphi =\pi /2`$, $`T_c^C/T_c^J=0.2`$, where $`T_c^{C(J)}`$ are the critical temperatures of the superconductors SC(J) and $`L_J`$ such that $`\mathrm{\Delta }_J/E_{Th}^J=300`$.

At the lowest temperatures, by increasing $`V_C`$ curves display a large supercurrent enhancement with respect to equilibrium at bias $`V_C=2\mathrm{\Delta }_C(T)/e=V_C^{}(T)`$ (region I in the figure). Further increase of bias leads to a $`\pi `$-transition (region II) and finally to a decay for larger voltages. This behavior is explained in Figs. 2(b,c,d) where the spectral supercurrent (solid line) is plotted together with $`f(E)f(E)`$ (dash-dotted line) for values of $`V_C`$ and $`T`$ corresponding to regions I, II and III, respectively. Hatched areas represent the integral of their product, i.e., the supercurrent $`I_J`$ of Eq. (1). In particular, region I corresponds to the *cooling* regime where hot quasiparticles are extracted from the normal metal Heslinga ; leivo . The origin of the $`\pi `$-transition in region II is illustrated by Fig. 2(c), where the negative contribution to the integral is shown. We remark that the intensity of the supercurrent inversion is very significant. It reaches about 60$`\%`$ of the maximum value of $`I_J`$ at $`V_CV_C^{}(T)`$ in the whole temperature range, nearly doubling the $`\pi `$-state value of the supercurrent as compared to the case of an all-normal control channel wilhelm ; yip . In the high-temperature regime ($`T/T_c^C0.6`$), when the equilibrium critical current is vanishing, the supercurrent first undergoes a low-bias $`\pi `$-transition (region III in the figure), then enters regions I and II. This recover of the supercurrent from vanishingly small values at equilibrium is again the consequence of the peculiar shape of $`f`$ (see Fig. 2(d)). Notably, the supercurrent enhancement around $`V_C^{}(T)`$ remains pronounced even at the highest temperatures, so that $`I_J`$ attains values largely exceeding 50$`\%`$ of the junction maximum supercurrent. This demonstrates the full tunability of the supercurrent through nonequilibrium effects induced by the superconducting control lines. We remark that this is a unique feature stemming from the superconductivity-induced nonequilibrium population in the weak link.

The length $`L_C`$ of the SINIS control line can be additionally varied to control the supercurrent by changing the effective strength of inelastic scattering in the N region. For $`_TR_C`$, the distribution function $`f(E)`$ in the N region is essentially $`y`$-independent and we have

$$\begin{array}{cc}& \frac{1}{e^2_T\mathrm{\Omega }_C\nu _F}[𝒩_1(_1f(E))+𝒩_2(_2f(E))]\hfill \\ & +\kappa 𝑑\omega 𝑑\epsilon \omega ^\alpha (\omega ,\epsilon ,y,E)=0.\hfill \end{array}$$
(4)
Here $`\nu _F`$ is the normal-metal density of states at the Fermi energy, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_C`$ is the volume of the N region and $``$ is the net collision rate at energy $`E`$. At low temperatures, the most relevant scattering mechanism is electron-electron scattering anthore  and we can neglect the effect of electron-phonon scattering. Then nag ; pothier ,

$$(\omega ,\epsilon ,y,E)=^{in}(\omega ,\epsilon ,y,E)^{out}(\omega ,\epsilon ,y,E),$$
(5)
and

$`^{in}(\omega ,\epsilon ,E)=(1f(\epsilon ))(1f(E))f(\epsilon \omega )f(E+\omega ),`$ (6)
$`^{out}(\omega ,\epsilon ,E)=(1f(\epsilon \omega ))(1f(E+\omega ))f(\epsilon )f(E).`$ (7)
Electron-electron interaction is either due to direct Coulomb scattering AA ; kamenev  or mediated by magnetic impurities anthore . Below, we concentrate on the former, but the latter would yield a similar qualitative behavior. From the calculation of the screened Coulomb interaction in the diffusive channel, it follows AA  that $`\alpha =3/2`$ for a quasi-one dimensional wire and $`\kappa =(\pi \sqrt{D/2}\mathrm{}^{3/2}\nu _FA_C)^1`$ kamenev . We note that $`\mathrm{\Delta }_C`$ is the most relevant energy scale to describe the distribution function for different voltages $`V_C`$. It is thus useful to replace $`\omega \omega /\mathrm{\Delta }_C`$ and $`\epsilon \epsilon /\mathrm{\Delta }_C`$, in order to obtain a dimensionless equation. Multiplying Eq. (4) by $`e^2_T\mathrm{\Omega }_C\nu _F`$ we obtain

$$\begin{array}{c}\hfill 𝒩_1(_1f(E))𝒩_2(f(E)_2)=\\ \hfill =𝒦_{coll}𝑑\omega 𝑑\epsilon \omega ^{3/2}_{coll}^{tot}(\omega ,\epsilon ,y,E),\end{array}$$
(8)
where $`𝒦_{coll}=\frac{_T}{R_C}\frac{L_C^2\kappa }{D}\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }_C}=\sqrt{2}\frac{_T}{R_K}\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_C}{E_{Th}^C}}`$, $`R_K=h/2e^2`$ and $`E_{Th}^C=\mathrm{}D/L_C^2`$. In the absence of electron-electron interaction ($`𝒦_{coll}=0`$) Eq. (3) is recovered.

The influence of inelastic scattering on $`I_J`$ is shown in Fig. 3, which displays the critical current of a long junction at $`T=0.1T_c^C`$ for several values of $`𝒦_{coll}`$. Here $`I_J`$ is obtained by numerically solving Eq. (8). The effect of electron-electron interaction is to strongly suppress the $`\pi `$-state and to widen the peak around $`V_C^{}`$. The $`\pi `$-transition vanishes for $`𝒦_{coll}100`$, but the $`I_J`$ enhancement due to quasiparticle cooling still persists in the limit of even larger inelastic scattering giazotto . The disappearance of the $`\pi `$-state can be understood by looking at the right inset of Fig. 3 which clearly shows how $`f`$ (calculated at $`eV_C=2.5\mathrm{\Delta }_C`$) gradually relaxes from nonequilibrium towards a Fermi function upon increasing $`𝒦_{coll}`$. The left inset shows how $`f`$ (evaluated at $`eV_C=1.5\mathrm{\Delta }_C`$) sharpens, thus enhancing $`I_J`$, by increasing $`𝒦_{coll}`$. This effect follows from the fact that inelastic interactions redistribute the occupation of quasiparticle levels in the N region, thus increasing the occupation at higher energy. As a consequence, higher-energy excitations are more effectively removed by tunneling, even for biases well below and not only around $`V_C^{}`$ (as in the case of $`𝒦_{coll}=0`$). At the same time, supercurrent recovery at high temperature is gradually weakened upon enhancing $`𝒦_{coll}`$. Notably, these calculations show that a rather large amount of inelastic scattering is necessary to weaken and completely suppress the $`\pi `$-state. For example, using Al/Al2O3/Cu as materials composing the SINIS line, $`𝒦_{coll}=1`$ corresponds to use a fairly long control line with $`L_C2.3`$ $`\mu `$m device .

Changing the ratio $`T_c^C/T_c^J`$ shifts the $`I_J`$ response along the $`V_C`$ axis, the shape of the characteristics being virtually independent of $`T_c^C`$. This translates into a different magnitude of control voltages $`V_C`$ and power dissipation $`P=I_CV_C`$, where $`I_C`$ is the control current across the SINIS channel. The function $`P(V_C)`$ is plotted in Fig. 4(a) for some ratios $`T_c^C/T_c^J`$ at $`T=0.01T_c^J`$, assuming $`_T=10^3\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`T_c^J=9.26`$ K. The impact of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_C`$ in controlling power dissipation is easily recognized. These effects clearly indicate that $`\mathrm{\Delta }_C\mathrm{\Delta }_J`$ is the condition to be fulfilled in order to minimize $`P`$. In practice, the power dissipation for $`V_C>V_C^{}`$ constitutes an experimental problem as this energy needs to be carried out from the reservoirs. In a similar way the noise properties of the system are sensitive to the different $`T_c^C/T_c^J`$ ratios.

Assuming that the noise through one junction is essentially uncorrelated from the noise through the other, it follows that the input noise power $`𝒮`$ in the control line can be expressed as

$$𝒮=\frac{1}{_T}_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑E𝒩_1[f(E)(1_1)+_1(1f(E))].$$
(9)
$`𝒮(V_C)`$ from Eq. (9) is shown in Fig. 4(b) for the same parameters of Fig. 4(a). For example, for $`T_c^C/T_c^J=0.1`$ (corresponding roughly to the combination Al/Nb), $`P`$ obtains values of the order of a few $`10^{15}`$ W and $`𝒮`$ of some $`10^{30}`$ A2Hz-1 in the cooling regime, while these values are enhanced respectively to few tens of $`10^{12}`$ W and $`10^{26}`$ A2Hz-1 for biases around the $`\pi `$-transition.

In light of the possible use of this operational principle for device implementation, let us comment on the available gain and switching times. Input and output voltages are of the order of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_C/e`$ and $`E_{Th}^J/e`$, respectively, so that it seems hard to achieve voltage gain. On the other hand, differential current gain $`𝐆_I=dI_J/dI_C`$ can be very large. For $`V_C>V_C^{}`$ a simple estimate gives $`𝐆_I(E_{Th}^J/\mathrm{\Delta }_C)(_T/R_N)`$, meaning that with realistic ratios $`_T/R_N`$ ($`10^3`$), $`𝐆_I`$ can exceed $`10^2`$. $`𝐆_I(V_C)`$ calculated for $`T_c^C/T_c^J=0.2`$ is plotted in Fig. 4(c) (the inset shows the gain in the $`\pi `$-state region). This calculation reveals that $`𝐆_I`$ can reach huge values, with some $`10^5`$ for $`V_C<V_C^{}`$ gain  and several $`10^2`$ in the opposite regime. Remarkably, gain is almost unchanged also in the presence of weak inelastic scattering (i.e., $`𝒦_{coll}=1`$). The same holds for $`P`$ and $`𝒮`$. The highest operating frequency $`\nu `$ of the transistor is limited by the smallest energy in the system: $`\nu \mathrm{min}\frac{1}{h}\{\mathrm{\Delta }_C,\mathrm{\Delta }_J,E_{Th}^C,E_{Th}^J,h(_T𝒞)^1\}`$ where $`𝒞`$ is the tunnel junction capacitance. For an optimized device, working frequencies of the order of $`10^{11}`$ Hz can be experimentally achieved in the high-voltage regime $`V_C>V_C^{}`$. For $`V_C<V_C^{}`$, conversely, the response is slower (somewhat below $`10^9`$ Hz), owing to the long discharging time through the junctions.

We thank M. H. Devoret, K. K. Likharev, F. Pierre, L. Roschier, A. M. Savin, and V. Semenov for helpful discussions. This work was supported in part by MIUR under the FIRB project RBNE01FSWY and by the EU (RTN-Nanoscale Dynamics).


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# 1. Introduction

## 1. Introduction

Any theory of spontaneously broken symmetry, the most known being the Higgs model, leads to the possibility of at least two vacua. One vacuum corresponds to the trivial solution, the other to the nontrivial one with nonzero vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field. If one considers the vacuum expectation value of the quantized stress energy tensor and puts it into the right hand side of Einstein’s equations one will see that two vacua are different by the nonzero cosmological constant appearing for the nontrivial vacuum. The observable value of the cosmological constant can be obtained by taking vacuum expectation value of the order of one thousand’s of eV, i.e. the mass of some axion. So if one puts the hypothesis, expressed by the author many years ago, that the quantum state of the Universe is not a pure state but the mixture of two vacua — the normal and the superfluid one, nonzero cosmological constant necessarily is observed. Human observers can observe only the world on the nontrivial vacuum but gravitation is influenced by worlds on both vacua. Different vacua correspond to unitary nonequivalent representations of commutation relations and to orthogonal Hilbert spaces of states. So differently from other situations in physics in cosmology if the volume is infinite no tunneling is possible from one vacuum to the other.

Three models of spontaneous breaking of symmetry are considered: discrete symmetry breaking with one real scalar field, the Higgs model for the complex scalar field and the Nambu model with spinor particles. In the first model to the massive real field on one vacuum correspond tachyons on the other.

For Higgs model one predicts existence of the relativistic dark matter composed of massless vector particles and tachyons. For the Nambu model to massive fermions and Goldstone massless particles on one vacuum correspond massless fermions of hidden matter on the other. Differently from the domains idea these vacua exist everywhere due to translational invariance and no domain walls are present in the Universe.

Tachyons are nonobservable in the world where human observers exist, they are massive Higgs bosons in this world. However their existence in the other vacuum world due to gravitational effects can lead to correlations on spacelike intervals for ordinary matter which can solve some Friedmann cosmology paradoxes. The main result of the mixture of vacua hypothesis is that if dark matter correspond to the world on the other vacuum then the nonzero cosmological constant must be observed.

## 2. Nonzero cosmological constant in spontaneously broken symmetry theories

Observations show that the cosmological constant in the observable Universe is some positive nonzero number. The widespread opinion is that nonzero cosmological constant can arise due to special properties of the vacuum for quantum particles in the Universe. What are these properties and how they can lead to the observable value of the cosmological constant? There are two different ways to obtain this constant from the properties of the quantum vacuum.

1. If one calculates the vacuum expectation value of the stress-energy tensor for free quantized field in curved space-time  one obtains some divergent expression. The leading divergent term is proportional to the fourth degree of the momentum and has the form of the cosmological term in Einstein’s equations. This term is present also in flat Minkowski space-time and describes quantum vacuum oscillations. The cosmological constant occurs to be positive for bosons and negative for fermions. This gives hope that due to some supersymmetry for bosons and fermions the divergence can be cancelled and some finite value for the cosmological constant can occur. However there is no quantitative method to obtain this value, so the whole reasoning has only some qualitative meaning.

2. The other way to obtain the nonzero value of the cosmological constant as it was shown by the author in 1967  is to consider the models with spontaneous breaking of discrete and continuous symmetries in quantum field theory in curved space-time and consider the quantum state of the Universe to be not a pure but a mixed state. Instead of taking the so called wave function of the Universe as a pure state one can consider some mixture of vacua, the trivial and the nontrivial one described by some density matrix with weights for elements of the mixture.

In these models one has the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian invariant under some symmetry transformations but there exist two different vacua, the trivial invariant one and the other noninvariant vacuum. For the continuous symmetry breaking one has the degenerate noninvariant vacuum and infinite number of different vacua with the same energy can be obtained by the symmetry transformation. In this case Goldstone massless bosons exist which however can acquire nonzero mass if some explicit breaking of symmetry in the Lagrangian is taken into account.

a) Take the simplest model of one real scalar or pseudoscalar field with selfinteraction with the Lagrangian

$$L=\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }}{x_\mu }\right)^2+\frac{1}{2}\mu _0^2\mathrm{\Phi }^2\frac{\lambda }{4}\mathrm{\Phi }^4.$$
(1)
The wrong sign for mass squared means that the free field corresponds to some tachyons, which is the usual case for Goldstone models. The potential

$$V(\mathrm{\Phi })=\frac{1}{2}\mu _0^2\mathrm{\Phi }^2\frac{\lambda }{4}\mathrm{\Phi }^4$$
(2)
has two extremal points defined by the equation

$$\mu _0^2\mathrm{\Phi }\lambda \mathrm{\Phi }^3=0$$
(3)
so that besides the trivial zero solution the nontrivial solution also exists. In quantum field theory these two solutions correspond to two different vacua, one with the zero vacuum expectation value, the other one with the nonzero value $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0=\mu _0/\sqrt{\lambda }`$. For pseudoscalar particles nonzero value means that $`P`$-invariance of the Lagrangian is broken for the nontrivial vacuum. Quantization on the nontrivial vacuum is made by going to new fields obtained by the shift on the vacuum expectation value of the field, so that in terms of the new fields taking into account the equation for the vacuum expectation value one gets a new Lagrangian

$$L=\frac{1}{2}\left(_\mu \phi \right)^2\frac{1}{2}\mu _0^2\phi ^2\lambda \mathrm{\Phi }_0\phi ^3\frac{\lambda }{4}\phi ^4+C$$
(4)
where for the constant $`C`$ one has $`C=\mu _0^4/(4\lambda )`$. If one considers vacuum expectation value of stress-energy tensor in the normal form of the quantized scalar (pseudoscalar) field due to translational invariance of vacuum (in curved space in homogeneous space-time instead of Minkowski translations one must consider elements of the group of homogeneoity) this vacuum expectation value is equal with the negative sign to the vacuum expectation value of the potential. So for the nontrivial vacuum one obtains in the right hand side of Einstein’s equations after multiplying on the gravitational constant some positive cosmological constant $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=GC`$. Its numerical value is calculated if one knows the values of the mass of the boson and the selfinteraction constant. For the trivial vacuum this cosmological constant is zero. However one can speculate that the Lagrangian and the Hamiltonian are defined up to some constant, so it may be that this arbitrary constant is defined so that it just compensates the new constant arising on the nontrivial vacuum. The idea expressed by the author in  was that in cosmology one can think that both vacua are realized in the infinite Universe with some weights in the density matrix of the Universe. Hilbert spaces in which unitary nonequivalent representations of commutation relations for the scalar field can be realized are orthogonal. So no quantum physical process can connect these states. For the actually infinite volume of the Universe (however it can be that this volume must be much larger than the volume inside the horizon!) no tunneling from one vacuum to the other is possible. This is the difference of the situation in the Universe and that arising for any finite volume manybody system when tunneling with nonzero probability is possible. That is the reason that no domains or space regions with one and the other vacua can coexist. Both vacua are translational invariant in our case. There are two disconnected different worlds. No physical interaction exists between them. However our hypothesis is that both worlds gravitate and it is only due to the gravity (quantization of which is still nonexistent) that they interact. One of the worlds is considered from the point of the other as some dark matter and the nonzero cosmological constant must be necessarily present in Einstein’s equations! If one takes selfinteraction constant for scalar particles in our model to be of the order of unity, then observational value of the cosmological constant is consistent with the mass of our field of the order of $`10^3`$ eV, i.e. of the axion in some models . In the result for our simple model one can come to the following conclusions. We as human observers live on one nontrivial vacuum where no tachyons can be observed, instead we can observe massive scalar (pseudoscalar) particles with the axion mass. These particles can interact with other particles which have interactions with the electromagnetic field forming the observable Universe. However there exists the other world on the trivial vacuum, nonobserved by us through electromagnetic interaction and where we cannot have our ordinary body made from usual particles. So anthropic principle makes this world unseen and we cannot be conscious of it due to the usual nervous mechanism. In this other world tachyons as some dark matter exist. Tachyon theorists  claim that tachyons can account for some correllations on spacelike intervals. Friedmann cosmology for the early Universe has the well known problem of causality which inflation tries to solve. But if tachyons exist on the other vacuum they can provide another solution of the problem. In our reasoning we for simplicity took both weights for vacua of the order of unity. However one can take one of these weights much smaller than the other, so that the mass of the scalar particle can be much larger. In nonstationary Friedmann Universe these weights can depend on time which opens the way to new theoretical possibilities.

b) The Higgs model. One has the complex scalar field (or equivalently two real fields) with tachyonic mass (negative sign of the mass squared) interacting with massless vector field and with selfinteraction term as in the previous case with the Lagrangian

$$L=\frac{1}{2}\left(\phi _1\right)^2\frac{1}{2}\left(\phi _2\right)^2V(\phi _1^2+\phi _2^2)\frac{1}{4}F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }$$
(5)
where

$$_\mu \phi _1=_\mu \phi _1e_0A_\mu \phi _2,_\mu \phi _2=_\mu \phi _2+e_0A_\mu \phi _1,$$
(6)
$$F_{\mu \nu }=_\mu A_\nu _\nu A_\mu .$$
(7)
Looking for the stationary points of the potential

$$V(\phi _1^2+\phi _2^2)=\mu _0^2\left(\phi _1^2+\phi _2^2\right)\frac{1}{6}\lambda \left(\phi _1^2+\phi _2^2\right)^2$$
(8)
one obtains two solutions

$$\phi _1=\phi _2=0;\phi _1=0,\phi _2=\phi _00.$$
(9)
The solution leading to noninvariant nonzero vacuum expectation value describes one scalar field of the Higgs boson with the mass, the other scalar component forms the degree of freedom of the vector massive boson so that one comes to equations

$$\left(\mathrm{}4\phi _0^2V^{\prime \prime }(\phi _0^2)\right)\stackrel{~}{\phi }_2=0,$$
(10)
$$_\nu F^{\mu \nu }e_0^2\phi _0^2B^\mu =0,$$
(11)
$$B_\mu =A_\mu (e_0\phi _0)^1_\mu \stackrel{~}{\phi }_1$$
(12)
As in the model discussed by us previously the nonzero cosmological constant is equal to

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }=G\frac{1}{6}\lambda \phi _0^4.$$
(13)
c) Nambu’s model for the spinor field. The Lagrangian is

$$L=\overline{\psi }i_\mu ^\mu \psi +g\left[(\overline{\psi }\psi )^2(\overline{\psi }\gamma _5\psi )^2\right].$$
(14)
There are two different vacua for this chiral invariant Lagrangian. Following  define

$$m_S(x)=2gi\mathrm{Tr}S_F(x,x),m_P(x)=2g\mathrm{Tr}(\gamma _5S_F(x,x)),$$
(15)
$$\mathrm{\Phi }(x)=m_S(x)+im_P(x).$$
(16)
Then one obtains the analog of the Ginzburg-Landau equation for the superconductor wave function

$$\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Phi }2m_{\mathrm{}}^2\mathrm{\Phi }(x)+2|\mathrm{\Phi }(x)|^2\mathrm{\Phi }(x)=0$$
(17)
where

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(x)\underset{x\mathrm{}}{\overset{}{}}m_{\mathrm{}}.$$
(18)
As it is well known in Minkowski space-time one must introduce some cutoff parameter for the theory to be consistent. However in curved space-time with the negative curvature of space one can have nontrivial vacuum without the cutoff . Two vacua, the trivial and the nontrivial one are different by the cosmological constant

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }=G0^{}\left|g\left[(\overline{\psi }\psi )^2(\overline{\psi }\gamma _5\psi )^2\right]\right|0^{}.$$
(19)
This constant can have different sign depending on the values of different vacuum expectation values $`m_S,m_P`$. This means that there is the possibility of compensation of different cosmological constants occurring due to Higgs bosons etc and fermions in the Nambu model. Two worlds are different in the sense that massless fermions with exact chiral symmetry exist in one world, while in the other world there exist massive fermions and Goldstone pseudoscalar particles. If one takes the observable value of the cosmological constant then for close to unity weights in the density matrix for vacua the mass of the fermion must be close to the axion mass discussed before, so that one can identify it as some neutrino particle. Can we make some estimates on weights in the density matrix for vacua? If the world on the trivial vacuum is identified with some dark matter then it seems that in the present form our model must lead to the identification of cold dark matter with massive tachyons and to the difference in weights consistent with observations not larger than one percent. This excludes the possibility of taking instead of the axion mass the Higgs boson mass of the electroweak model. For Higgs model the weight of the nontrivial vacuum at the modern epoch must be very small.

Acknowledgements. This work was supported by Min. of Education of Russia, grant E02-3.1-198.