A 10 V programmable Josephson voltage standard and its applications for voltage metrology

The concept of a programmable Josephson voltage standard (PJVS) was first proposed in 1997. Since then a significant amount of research and development work has been devoted to the fabrication of the programmable Josephson junction array and its deployment in a voltage standard system. This paper reports the recent development of a 10 V PJVS system at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and its voltage metrology applications. The superior stability of the voltage step of the new 10 V PJVS enables it to perform the same tasks as the conventional Josephson voltage standard (JVS) that uses hysteretic voltage steps and to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of a JVS direct comparison. For the first time, a comparison between a conventional JVS and the NIST 10 V PJVS was performed in order to verify the performance of the NIST 10 V PJVS. The mean difference between the two systems at 10 V was found to be −0.49 nV with a combined standard uncertainty of 1.32 nV (k = 1) or a relative combined standard uncertainty of 1.32 parts in 1010. Automatic comparisons between the 10 V PJVS and a 2.5 V PJVS at 1.018 V were performed to monitor the long term accuracy and stability of the 2.5 V PJVS and to support the NIST electronic kilogram experiment. By matching the voltages of the two PJVS systems during a comparison, the type B uncertainty can be minimized to a negligible level. The difference between the two PJVS at 1.018 V was found to be −0.38 nV with a combined standard uncertainty of 0.68 nV (k = 1) or a relative combined standard uncertainty of 6.7 parts in 1010. Issues encountered during the PJVS comparison and potential challenges for 10 V applications are also discussed.