Inter-Site 1/f Fluctuation Mechanics in Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) Mixers and Josephson Junction Detectors
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) mixers and Josephson junction detectors operate at millikelvin temperatures and represent the pinnacle of sensitive heterodyne detection for sub-millimeter wave and terahertz radio astronomy, as well as cosmic microwave background (CMB) instrumentation. While photon-assisted quasiparticle tunneling yields quantum-limited conversion gain, the ultimate sensitivity of SIS receivers and superconducting quantum detectors is fundamentally limited by low-frequency flicker noise and current fluctuations arising from trapped vortex motion, sub-gap leakage currents, and barrier interface defects. Conventional BCS-based tunneling models and empirical semiconductor noise formulas fail to capture the non-linear spectral upturns and phase jitter induced by quantum phase slips in disordered barrier junctions. Here, we present a first-principles derivation of inter-site fluctuation mechanics applied specifically to SIS tunnel junctions and Josephson device barriers. By framing quasiparticle trapping and Cooper pair tunneling across the insulating barrier as a stochastic transition network governed by zero-point random network matrix fluctuations, we eliminate phenomenological noise parameters. We derive the exact spectral density governing sub-gap current noise and phase diffusion, incorporate non-Hermitian Lindblad dissipation kernels to model vortex pinning relaxation, and establish closed-form expressions for the input-referred noise temperature in terahertz heterodyne receivers.
Author: Glenn-Anderson, James
Language: English
Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225330030