Coherence in Strongly Coupled rf SQUID metamaterials

The radio frequency Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (rf SQUID) has been established as a viable building block for microwave frequency metamaterials [1,2]. The nonlinearity and nonlocal coupling of rf SQUID metamaterials endow them with interesting dynamical properties, such as chaos and chimera states, both of which have been studied extensively by theorists in the context of rf SQUID metamaterials [3,4,5,6]. In this work, laser scanning microscopy [7] with single SQUID resolution is employed to study collective states of the nonlinear metamaterial with strong inductive and capacitive couplings. Chimeras and complex modes are expected to emerge from a strongly interacting and highly nonlinear system. These nontrivial behaviors demonstrated the potential of the rf SQUID metamaterial as a platform to study many-body physics.

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[7] Appl. Phys. Lett. 114, 082601 (2019)