Probing the microwave response of novel Josephson elements

After the introduction in Ch. 1, we introduce in Ch. 2 the fundamental concepts of superconductivity and the emergence of the Josephson effect when two superconducting leads are weakly linked to each other. In Ch. 3 we review different methods to probe Josephson junctions with high-frequency techniques and compare the expected responses for junctions with trivial and topologically non-trivial character. We then turn our attention to the experimental realization by presenting in Ch. 4 the techniques and materials used to fabricate Josephson junctions and their superconducting read-out circuits. Ch. 5 is dedicated to significant improvements on the cryogenic microwave setups, which were essential to refine the experimental results. In Ch. 6 we detail the phase-dependent microwave response of a graphene Josephson junction. We present the validation of the admittance of a topologically trivial Josephson junction and hereby provide a possibility to compare this electronic signature to the one expected of a potentially non-trivial junction. In the last experimental chapter, Ch. 7, we focus on detecting Josephson radiation and inducing Shapiro steps in junctions with different material compositions, ranging from trivial junctions to expected topological junctions. Finally, in Ch. 8 we conclude our investigations and provide an outlook on further research in probing the microwave response of novel Josephson elements.