Line width of Josephson flux flow oscillators

A combination of wide-band electronic tunability and moderate free-running line width makes the Josephson flux flow oscillator (FFO) a perfect on-chip local oscillator for integrated submillimeter-wave SIS receivers. The possibility of FFO phase locking at all frequencies of interest has to be proven before one initiates real FFO applications. To achieve this goal a comprehensive set of line width measurements of the FFO operating in different regimes has been performed. FFOs with tapered shape have been successfully implemented in order to avoid the superfine resonant structure with voltage spacing of about 20 nV and extremely low differential resistance, recently observed in the IVC of the standard rectangular geometry. The obtained results have been compared with existing theories and FFO models in order to understand and possibly eliminate excess noise in the FFO. The intrinsic line width increases considerably at voltages above the boundary voltage because of the abrupt increase of the internal damping due to Josephson self-coupling. The influence of FFO parameters, in particular the differential resistances associated both with the bias current and with the applied magnetic field on the radiation line width, has been studied. Possible means of decreasing the free-running FFO line width will be discussed.