Design and Manufacture of Traveling-wave Electro-optic Modulator for X-band LFM Signal Generation

In this paper, a photonic-based microwave system technology is described, and a traveling-wave electro-optic modulator is designed and manufactured as a key component. The fabricated modulator is composed of a metal diffusion waveguide for optical transmission and a planar waveguide electrode on lithium niobate substrate for microwave transmission. The electro-optic response bandwidth of I and Q channels in a fabricated dual parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator were measured for 27.67 and 28.11 GHz, respectively. Photonic four times up-converted X-band frequency and linear frequency modulated signal were confirmed using the fabricated electro-optic modulator by S-band input signal. The confirmed broadband signal can be applied to a microwave system for surveillance and high-resolution ISAR imaging.

Quantum versus classical regime in circuit quantum acoustodynamics

We experimentally study a circuit quantum acoustodynamics system with a superconducting artificial atom coupled to both a two-dimensional surface acoustic wave resonator and a one-dimensional microwave transmission line. The strong coupling between the artificial atom and the acoustic wave resonator is confirmed by the observation of the vacuum Rabi splitting at the base temperature of dilution refrigerator. We show that the propagation of microwave photons in the microwave transmission line can be controlled by a few phonons in the acoustic wave resonator. Furthermore, we demonstrate the temperature effect on the measurements of the Rabi splitting and temperature induced transitions from high excited dressed states. We find that the spectrum structure of two-peak for the Rabi splitting could become into those of several peaks under some special experimental conditions, and gradually disappears with the increase of the environmental temperature T. The continuous quantum-to-classical crossover is observed around the crossover temperature T c, which is determined via the thermal fluctuation energy k B T and the characteristic energy level spacing of the coupled system. Experimental results agree well with the theoretical simulations via the master equation of the coupled system at different effective temperatures.

Breast tissue mimicking phantoms for combined ultrasound and microwave imaging

We present a new formulation for a breast tissue-mimicking phantom for combined microwave and ultrasound imaging to assist breast cancer detection. Formulations based on coconut oil, canola oil, agar and glass beads were used to mimic skin and fat tissues. First, 36 recipes were fabricated, and properties were measured to determine the relationship and possible interaction between ingredients with the ultrasound and microwave properties. Based on these results, the formulae were developed to mimic different tissues found in breast, including skin, fat, fibroglandular, and tumour tissues. All phantoms contained a base of agar and glass beads at different proportions depending on the tissue mimicked. Tumour and fibroglandular tissues were best mimicked by adding polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), while using coconut oil for skin and canola oil for fat produced the best results. Five final phantoms with different internal structures were fabricated and imaged using B-mode ultrasound and a microwave transmission system. Microwave permittivity maps were obtained from the microwave system and compared to ultrasound images. The structure and composition of the phantoms were all confirmed through this microwave and ultrasound imaging.

Design evaluation of microwave transmission properties of YBa2Cu3O7 -based kinetic inductance detectors

We designed, fabricated, and characterized microwave transmission properties with rewound strip structures for YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO)-based kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs). The superconducting rewound strip serves as a microwave resonator and as a broadband terahertz-wave antenna. To predict the microwave resonance characteristics before fabrication, the line-width (w) and space (s) dependence of the spiral resonators were analyzed using an electromagnetic simulator; the resonance frequency increased, and the quality factor decreased with increasing w and s from 10 to 40 μm. YBCO-based KID arrays with different w (10 and 40 μm) were fabricated on 10 mm-square MgO substrates, cooled to 3 K using a 4He refrigerator, and evaluated using a vector network analyzer to verify the result of the simulation experimentally. The measured resonance frequency ratio of 1.11 times (5.04 → 5.59 GHz) agreed with the simulated ones of 1.10 times (4.84 → 5.33 GHz) between w = 10 and 40 μm. The other resonance characteristics, such as transmission coefficient and quality factor, have a similar w dependence with the simulation.