Design and experimental study of superconducting left-handed transmission lines with tunable dispersion

We study the microwave properties of a superconducting tunable coplanar waveguide (CPW). Pairs of Josephson junctions are forming superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs), which shunt the central conductor of the CPW. The Josephson inductance of the SQUIDs is varied in the range of 0.08–0.5 nH by applying a dc magnetic field. The central conductor of the CPW contains Josephson junctions connected in series that provide extra inductances; the magnetic field controlling the SQUIDs is weak enough not to influence the inductance of the chain of the single junctions. The circuit is designed to have left- and right-handed transmission properties separated by a variable rejection band; the band edges can be tuned by the magnetic field. We present transmission measurements on CPWs based on up to 120 Nb–AlOx–Nb Josephson junctions. At zero magnetic field, we observed no rejection band in the frequency range of 8–11 GHz. When applying the magnetic field, a rejection band between 7 GHz and 9 GHz appears. The experimental data are compared with numerical simulations. (paper)