Tunnel diode oscillator technique for penetration depth studies of superconductors

Tunnel diode oscillator (TDO) is a powerful technique for measuring the penetration depth of superconductor down to 10 mK-scale temperature. This final year project is part of the long term program to set up a TDO in our lab. The aims here are to solve two of the main difficulties in TDO, namely the...

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Main Author: Tam, Qian Xin
Other Authors: Christos Panagopoulos
Format: Final Year Project (FYP)
Language:English
Published: 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/52865
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author Tam, Qian Xin
author2 Christos Panagopoulos
author_facet Christos Panagopoulos
Tam, Qian Xin
author_sort Tam, Qian Xin
collection NTU
description Tunnel diode oscillator (TDO) is a powerful technique for measuring the penetration depth of superconductor down to 10 mK-scale temperature. This final year project is part of the long term program to set up a TDO in our lab. The aims here are to solve two of the main difficulties in TDO, namely the home-making of low-temperature electronics and the detection of weak signal (~ 0.1 uV, ~ 20 MHz) by room-temperature electronics. I had designed and fabricated a "Nitrogen Probe" which is essentially a low temperature exchange gas chamber that enables me to prototype the low-temperature electronics at 77 K. In the experiment, the intended signal is highly degraded by parasitic oscillation from the low-temperature electronics and stray radio frequency (RF) noise from the surrounding. The parasitic oscillation was minimized through changing the components of the low-temperature electronics on a trial-and-error basis. RF shielding technique in particular the use of semi-rigid coax was found to be effective in removing the surrounding RF noise. I managed to set up a low-temperature electronics that makes oscillation at 77 K. However, the oscillation frequency is not stable which in turn affects the precision of the TDO. Hence, future work will be focusing on obtaining a high stability oscillation.
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spelling ntu-10356/528652023-02-28T23:17:09Z Tunnel diode oscillator technique for penetration depth studies of superconductors Tam, Qian Xin Christos Panagopoulos School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences DRNTU::Science::Physics Tunnel diode oscillator (TDO) is a powerful technique for measuring the penetration depth of superconductor down to 10 mK-scale temperature. This final year project is part of the long term program to set up a TDO in our lab. The aims here are to solve two of the main difficulties in TDO, namely the home-making of low-temperature electronics and the detection of weak signal (~ 0.1 uV, ~ 20 MHz) by room-temperature electronics. I had designed and fabricated a "Nitrogen Probe" which is essentially a low temperature exchange gas chamber that enables me to prototype the low-temperature electronics at 77 K. In the experiment, the intended signal is highly degraded by parasitic oscillation from the low-temperature electronics and stray radio frequency (RF) noise from the surrounding. The parasitic oscillation was minimized through changing the components of the low-temperature electronics on a trial-and-error basis. RF shielding technique in particular the use of semi-rigid coax was found to be effective in removing the surrounding RF noise. I managed to set up a low-temperature electronics that makes oscillation at 77 K. However, the oscillation frequency is not stable which in turn affects the precision of the TDO. Hence, future work will be focusing on obtaining a high stability oscillation. Bachelor of Science in Physics 2013-05-28T08:40:23Z 2013-05-28T08:40:23Z 2013 2013 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/52865 en 87 p. application/pdf
spellingShingle DRNTU::Science::Physics
Tam, Qian Xin
Tunnel diode oscillator technique for penetration depth studies of superconductors
title Tunnel diode oscillator technique for penetration depth studies of superconductors
title_full Tunnel diode oscillator technique for penetration depth studies of superconductors
title_fullStr Tunnel diode oscillator technique for penetration depth studies of superconductors
title_full_unstemmed Tunnel diode oscillator technique for penetration depth studies of superconductors
title_short Tunnel diode oscillator technique for penetration depth studies of superconductors
title_sort tunnel diode oscillator technique for penetration depth studies of superconductors
topic DRNTU::Science::Physics
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/52865
work_keys_str_mv AT tamqianxin tunneldiodeoscillatortechniqueforpenetrationdepthstudiesofsuperconductors