Josephson Parametric Amplifier in Axion Experiments

Abstract: The axion is a hypothetical particle, a promising candidate for dark matter, and a solution to the strong CP problem. Axion haloscope search experiments deal with a signal power comparable to noise uncertainty at millikelvin temperature. We use a flux-driven Josephson parametric amplifier (JPA) with the aim of approaching a noise level near the theoretically allowed limit of half quanta. In our measurements to characterize the JPA we have found the added noise to the system with a JPA as the first-stage amplifier to be lower than 110 mK at the frequencies from 0.938 GHz to 0.963 GHz.