Projects
The aim of the DART WARS project is to boost the sensitivity of INFN experiments based on low-noise superconducting detectors. This goal will be reached through the development of wideband superconducting amplifiers with noise at the quantum limit and the implementation of a quantum limited readout in different types of superconducting detectors.
The DART WARS project is a research effort to improve the performance and reliability of these amplifiers with the study of new materials and with improved microwave and thermal engineering. The long-term goal is to demonstrate, for the first time, the readout with different sensors (TESs, MKIDs, microwave cavities and qubits) opening the concrete possibility to increase the sensitivity of the next generation particle physics experiments.
Local activities: we perform modeling and numerical simulations of the behavior of Josephson-based traveling wave parametric amplifiers (TWPAs).
Local group: C. Barone, G. Carapella, G. Filatrella, V. Granata, C. Guarcello, C. Mauro, S. Pagano, V. Pierro
Local P.I.: S. Pagano, spagano@unisa.it
Recent progresses in the ability to measure and manipulate individual quanta such as microwave-photons, phonons and magnons are opening new directions in the detection of Dark Matter and of Fifth Forces, in tests of Quantum Gravity and of Quantum Mechanics of macroscopic objects. Superconducting qubits constitute a fundamental building block of this progress. In the last 15 years quantum sensing with superconducting qubits has moved from proof of principle to application to fundamental physics experiments, showing an unprecedent improvement in sensitivity. This was made possible by the ability to engineer and fabricate quantum devices and to manipulate the qubit state with classical fields. Quantum superposition and entanglement have been used to achieve Quantum Non Demolition detection of single photons and detection of itinerant photons, respectively, two fundamental features required by a microwave-photon detector in Axion dark-matter experiments.
Qub-IT is a project funded by INFN Scientific Commission V. It aims to develop quantum sensing with superconducting qubits for present and future INFN fundamental-physics experiments. The main objective of the project is the realization of an itinerant single-photon counter that surpasses present devices in terms of efficiency and low dark-count rates by exploiting repeated QND measurements of a single photon and entanglement in multiple qubits. This device will find immediate application in light dark-matter searches. The project sees the participation of several universities, INFN Units and research institutes.
Local activities: modeling of the Josephson parametric amplifiers and optimization of the operational parameters and experimental test of quantum circuit components to calibrate the fabrication process
Local group: C. Barone, G. Carapella, G. Filatrella, C. Guarcello, S. Pagano
Local P.I.: S. Pagano, spagano@unisa.it
Many of modern physics questions, from the nature of dark matter to the properties of the quantum vacuum, require the detection of meV electromagnetic signals and of very low intensity, up to the limit of single photon. This is the challenge that the INFN SIMP project has taken up. SIMP is developing two devices based on nanotechnology and superconductivity: the Transition Edge Sensor and the Josephson junctions. The former are currently able to measure single infrared photons, while the latter are used as qubits within quantum computers
The LNF laboratory, the INFN sections of Pisa and GC Salerno, the TIFPA in Trento, together with the CNR-IFN in Rome, the CNR-NEST in Pisa and the INRIM in Turin collaborate on the project.
Local activities: we perform modeling and numerical simulations of single microwave photon detectors based on Josephson junctions.
Main equipment: dual Xeon processors workstation equipped with Nvidia Titan RX GPU for heavy parallel computations.
Local group: C. Barone, G. Filatrella, C. Guarcello, S. Pagano, A. Piedjou Komnang
Local P.I.: S. Pagano, spagano@unisa.it
