Dynamical Coulomb Blockade of Shot Noise

C. Altimiras, O. Parlavecchio, P. Joyez, D. Vion, P. Roche, D. Esteve, F. Portier

Published 2014-03-24, updated 2014-10-23Version 2

We observe the suppression of the finite frequency shot-noise produced by a voltage biased tunnel junction due to its interaction with a single electromagnetic mode of high impedance. The tunnel junction is embedded in a quarter wavelength resonator containing a dense SQUID array providing it with a characteristic impedance in the kOhms range and a resonant frequency tunable in the 4-6 GHz range. Such high impedance gives rise to a sizeable Coulomb blockade on the tunnel junction (roughly 30% reduction in the differential conductance) and allows an efficient measurement of the spectral density of the current fluctuations at the resonator frequency. The observed blockade of shot-noise is found in agreement with an extension of the dynamical Coulomb blockade theory.