HIGH-SENSITIVITY MAGNETIC-FLUX SENSORS WITH DIRECT VOLTAGE READOUT - DOUBLE RELAXATION OSCILLATION SQUIDS

The experimental sensitivity of Double Relaxation Oscillation SQUIDs (DROSs) has been compared with theory and with the results obtained by numerical simulations, The experimental sensitivity ranges from 60 to 13h, where h is Planck's constant, for relaxation frequencies from 0.4 up to 10 GHz. For low frequencies the DROS characteristics can be explained by thermal noise on the critical currents. For high frequencies, the voltage-flux characteristis and the sensitivity are limited by the plasma frequency. The cross-over frequency is at 2 GHz, which is about 2 % of the plasma frequency of the DROSs.