No Arabic abstract
We investigate the Josephson critical current $I_c(Phi)$ of a wide superconductor-normal metal-superconductor (SNS) junction as a function of the magnetic flux $Phi$ threading it. Electronic trajectories reflected from the side edges alter the function $I_c(Phi)$ as compared to the conventional Fraunhofer-type dependence. At weak magnetic fields, $Blesssim Phi_0/d^2$, the edge effect lifts zeros in $I_c(Phi)$ and gradually shifts the minima of that function toward half-integer multiples of the flux quantum. At $B>Phi_0/d^2$, the edge effect leads to an accelerated decay of the critical current $I_c(Phi)$ with increasing $Phi$. At larger fields, eventually, the system is expected to cross into a regime of classical mesoscopic fluctuations that is specific for wide ballistic SNS junctions with rough edges.
$ $The critical current of a Josephson junction is an oscillatory function of the enclosed magnetic flux $Phi$, because of quantum interference modulated with periodicity $h/2e$. We calculate these Fraunhofer oscillations in a two-dimensional (2D) ballistic superconductor--normal-metal--superconductor (SNS) junction. For a Fermi circle the amplitude of the oscillations decays as $1/Phi$ or faster. If the Fermi circle is strongly warped, as it is on a square lattice near the band center, we find that the amplitude decays slower $propto 1/sqrtPhi$ when the magnetic length $l_m=sqrt{hbar/eB}$ drops below the separation $L$ of the NS interfaces. The crossover to the slow decay of the critical current is accompanied by the appearance of a 2D array of current vortices and antivortices in the normal region, which form a bipartite rectangular lattice with lattice constant $simeq l_m^2/L$. The 2D lattice vanishes for a circular Fermi surface, when only the usual single row of Josephson vortices remains.
Low temperature transport measurements on superconducting film - normal metal wire - superconducting film (SNS) junctions fabricated on the basis of 6 nm thick superconducting polycrystalline PtSi films are reported. The structures with the normal metal wires of two different lengths L=1.5 $mu$m and L=6$mu$m and the same widths W=0.3$mu$m are studied. Zero bias resistance dip related to pair current proximity effect is observed for all junctions whereas the subharmonic energy gap structure originating from phase coherent multiple Andreev reflections have occurs only in the SNS junctions with short wires.
As the size of a Josephson junction is reduced, charging effects become important and the superconducting phase across the link turns into a periodic quantum variable. Isolated Josephson junction arrays are described in terms of such periodic quantum variables and thus exhibit pronounced quantum interference effects arising from paths with different winding numbers (Aharonov-Casher effects). These interference effects have strong implications for the excitation spectrum of the array which are relevant in applications of superconducting junction arrays for quantum computing. The interference effects are most pronounced in arrays composed of identical junctions and possessing geometric symmetries; they may be controlled by either external gate potentials or by adding/removing charge to/from the array. Here we consider a loop of N identical junctions encircling one half superconducting quantum of magnetic flux. In this system, the ground state is found to be non-degenerate if the total number of Cooper pairs on the array is divisible by N, and doubly degenerate otherwise (after the stray charges are compensated by the gate voltages).
Using tunneling spectroscopy, we have measured the local electron energy distribution function in the normal part of a superconductor-normal metal-superconductor (SNS) Josephson junction containing an extra lead to a normal reservoir. In the presence of simultaneous supercurrent and injected quasiparticle current, the distribution function exhibits a sharp feature at very low energy. The feature is odd in energy, and odd under reversal of either the supercurrent or the quasiparticle current direction. The feature represents an effective temperature gradient across the SNS Josephson junction that is controllable by the supercurrent.
An extended Josephson junction consists of two superconducting electrodes that are separated by an insulator and it is therefore also a microwave cavity. The superconducting phase difference across the junction determines the supercurrent as well as its spatial distribution. Both, an external magnetic field and a resonant cavity intrafield produce a spatial modification of the superconducting phase along the junction. The interplay between these two effects leads to interference in the critical current of the junction and allows us to continuously tune the coupling strength between the first cavity mode and the Josephson phase from 1 to -0.5. This enables static and dynamic control over the junction in the ultra-strong coupling regime.