Injection Locking and Parametric Locking in a Superconducting Circuit

Abstract

Injection locking replicates the frequency and phase of a driven oscillator in a target oscillator, with applications in electronic, mechanical, and optical systems, and lately in mesoscopic circuits. The technique requires the driven oscillator to be almost resonant with the target oscillator. This study uses a superconducting circuit to demonstrate injection locking in a well-controlled parametric microwave oscillator. The authors furthermore present another technique, $p\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}a\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}r\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}a\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}m\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}e\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}t\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}r\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}i\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}c$ $l\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}o\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}c\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}k\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}i\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}n\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}g$, that removes the constraint on detuning between the oscillators. This should impact any device that should not or cannot be close to resonant driving, as in quantum information processing.