No Arabic abstract
This paper deal the effects of uncorrelated white noise, in a serie of Josephson Junctions coupled to a linear $RLC$ resonator. The junction are hysteretic, and hence can be considered birhythmic, that is capable to oscillate at different frequencies for the same set of parameters. Both Josephson Junctions with identical and disordered parameters are considered. With the uniform parameters, the array behaves similarly to single Josephson junctions, also in the presence of noise. The magnitude of the effective energy that characterizes the response to noise becomes smaller as the number of elements of the array increases, making the resonator less stable. Disorder in the parameters drastically changes the physics of the array. The disordered array of Josephson junctions misses the birhythmicity properties for large values of the variance of the disorder parameter. Nevertheless, the system remains birhythmic for low values of the disorder parameter. Finally, disorder makes it difficult to locate the separatrix, hinting to a more complex structure of the effective energy landscape.
We have studied a quantum Hamiltonian that models an array of ultrasmall Josephson junctions with short range Josephson couplings, $E_J$, and charging energies, $E_C$, due to the small capacitance of the junctions. We derive a new effective quantum spherical model for the array Hamiltonian. As an application we start by approximating the capacitance matrix by its self-capacitive limit and in the presence of an external uniform background of charges, $q_x$. In this limit we obtain the zero-temperature superconductor-insulator phase diagram, $E_J^{rm crit}(E_C,q_x)$, that improves upon previous theoretical results that used a mean field theory approximation. Next we obtain a closed-form expression for the conductivity of a square array, and derive a universal scaling relation valid about the zero--temperature quantum critical point. In the latter regime the energy scale is determined by temperature and we establish universal scaling forms for the frequency dependence of the conductivity.
The influence of fluctuations and periodical driving on temporal characteristics of short overdamped Josephson junction is analyzed. We obtain the standard deviation of the switching time in the presence of a dichotomous driving force for arbitrary noise intensity and in the frequency range of practical interest. For sinusoidal driving the resonant activation effect has been observed. The mean switching time and its standard deviation have a minimum as a function of driving frequency. As a consequence the optimization of the system for fast operation will simultaneously lead to minimization of timing errors.
An odd-occupied quantum dot in a Josephson junction can flip transmission phase, creating a {pi}-junction. When the junction couples topological superconductors, no phase flip is expected. We investigate this and related effects in a full-shell hybrid interferometer, using gate voltage to control dot-junction parity and axial magnetic flux to control the transition from trivial to topological superconductivity. Enhanced zero-bias conductance and critical current for odd parity in the topological phase reflects hybridization of the confined spin with zero-energy modes in the leads.
We present an analysis of the dynamics of a nanomechanical resonator coupled to a superconducting single electron transistor (SSET) in the vicinity of the Josephson quasiparticle (JQP) and double Josephson quasiparticle (DJQP) resonances. For weak coupling and wide separation of dynamical timescales, we find that for either superconducting resonance the dynamics of the resonator is given by a Fokker-Planck equation, i.e., the SSET behaves effectively as an equilibrium heat bath, characterised by an effective temperature, which also damps the resonator and renormalizes its frequency. Depending on the gate and drain-source voltage bias points with respect to the superconducting resonance, the SSET can also give rise to an instability in the mechanical resonator marked by negative damping and temperature within the appropriate Fokker-Planck equation. Furthermore, sufficiently close to a resonance, we find that the Fokker-Planck description breaks down. We also point out that there is a close analogy between coupling a nanomechanical resonator to a SSET in the vicinity of the JQP resonance and Doppler cooling of atoms by means of lasers.
We propose to characterize Levy-distributed stochastic fluctuations through the measurement of the average voltage drop across a current-biased Josephson junction. We show that the noise induced switching process in the Josephson washboard potential can be exploited to reveal and characterize Levy fluctuations, also if embedded in a thermal noisy background. The measurement of the average voltage drop as a function of the noise intensity allows to infer the value of the stability index that characterizes Levy-distributed fluctuations. An analytical estimate of the average velocity in the case of a Levy-driven escape process from a metastable state well agrees with the numerical calculation of the average voltage drop across the junction. The best performances are reached at small bias currents and low temperatures, emph{i.e.}, when both thermally activated and quantum tunneling switching processes can be neglected. The effects discussed in this work pave the way toward an effective and reliable method to characterize Levy components eventually present in an unknown noisy signal.