No Arabic abstract
The properties of phase escape in a dc SQUID at 25 mK, which is well below quantum-to-classical crossover temperature $T_{cr}$, in the presence of strong resonant ac driving have been investigated. The SQUID contains two Nb/Al-AlO$_{x} $/Nb tunnel junctions with Josephson inductance much larger than the loop inductance so it can be viewed as a single junction having adjustable critical current. We find that with increasing microwave power $W$ and at certain frequencies $ u $ and $ u $/2, the single primary peak in the switching current distribution, textrm{which is the result of macroscopic quantum tunneling of the phase across the junction}, first shifts toward lower bias current $I$ and then a resonant peak develops. These results are explained by quantum resonant phase escape involving single and two photons with microwave-suppressed potential barrier. As $W$ further increases, the primary peak gradually disappears and the resonant peak grows into a single one while shifting further to lower $I$. At certain $W$, a second resonant peak appears, which can locate at very low $I$ depending on the value of $ u $. Analysis based on the classical equation of motion shows that such resonant peak can arise from the resonant escape of the phase particle with extremely large oscillation amplitude resulting from bifurcation of the nonlinear system. Our experimental result and theoretical analysis demonstrate that at $Tll T_{cr}$, escape of the phase particle could be dominated by classical process, such as dynamical bifurcation of nonlinear systems under strong ac driving.
We study the thermodynamic properties of a superconductor/normal metal/superconductor Josephson junction {in the short limit}. Owing to the proximity effect, such a junction constitutes a thermodynamic system where {phase difference}, supercurrent, temperature and entropy are thermodynamical variables connected by equations of state. These allow conceiving quasi-static processes that we characterize in terms of heat and work exchanged. Finally, we combine such processes to construct a Josephson-based Otto and Stirling cycles. We study the related performance in both engine and refrigerator operating mode.
We study static and dynamical properties of fluxons in a long annular Josephson junction (JJ) with a current injected at one point and collected back at a close point. Uniformly distributed dc bias current is applied too. We demonstrate that, in the limit of the infinitely small size of the current dipole, the critical value of the bias current density, above which static phase distributions do not exist, that was recently found (in the Fraunhofers analytical form) for the annular JJ with the length much smaller than the Josephson penetration length, is valid irrespective of the junctions length, including infinitely long JJs. In a long annular JJ, the dipole generates free fluxon(s) if the bias current density exceeds the critical value. For long JJs, we also find another critical value (in an analytical form too), which is always slightly smaller than the Fraunhofer value, except for points where both values vanish. The static phase configuration which yields the new critical value is based on an unstable fluxon-antifluxon bound state, therefore it will probably not manifest itself in the usual (classical) regime. However, it provides for a dominating instanton configuration for tunnel birth of a free fluxon, hence it is expected to determine a quantum-birth threshold for fluxons at ultra-low temperatures. We also consider the interaction of a free fluxon with the complex consisting of the current dipole and antifluxon pinned by it. A condition for suppression of the net interaction force, which makes the long JJ nearly homogeneous for the free fluxon, is obtained in an analytical form. The analytical results are compared with numerical simulations.
We study the dynamic response to external currents of periodic arrays of Josephson junctions, in a resistively capacitively shunted junction (RCSJ) model, including full capacitance-matrix effects}. We define and study three different models of the capacitance matrix $C_{vec{r},vec{r}}$: Model A includes only mutual capacitances; Model B includes mutual and self capacitances, leading to exponential screening of the electrostatic fields; Model C includes a dense matrix $C_{vec{r},vec{r}}$ that is constructed approximately from superposition of an exact analytic solution for the capacitance between two disks of finite radius and thickness. In the latter case the electrostatic fields decay algebraically. For comparison, we have also evaluated the full capacitance matrix using the MIT fastcap algorithm, good for small lattices, as well as a corresponding continuum effective-medium analytic evaluation of a finite voltage disk inside a zero-potential plane. In all cases the effective $C_{vec{r},vec{r}}$ decays algebraically with distance, with different powers. We have then calculated current voltage characteristics for DC+AC currents for all models. We find that there are novel giant capacitive fractional steps in the I-Vs for Models B and C, strongly dependent on the amount of screening involved. We find that these fractional steps are quantized in units inversely proportional to the lattice sizes and depend on the properties of $C_{vec{r},vec{r}}$. We also show that the capacitive steps are not related to vortex oscillations but to localized screened phase-locking of a few rows in the lattice. The possible experimental relevance of these results is also discussed.
Quantum phase diffusion in a small underdamped Nb/AlO$_x$/Nb junction ($sim$ 0.4 $mu$m$^2$) is demonstrated in a wide temperature range of 25-140 mK where macroscopic quantum tunneling (MQT) is the dominant escape mechanism. We propose a two-step transition model to describe the switching process in which the escape rate out of the potential well and the transition rate from phase diffusion to the running state are considered. The transition rate extracted from the experimental switching current distribution follows the predicted Arrhenius law in the thermal regime but is greatly enhanced when MQT becomes dominant.
We investigate the Josephson radiation emitted by a junction made of a quantum dot coupled to two conventional superconductors. Close to resonance, the particle-hole symmetric Andreev states that form in the junction are detached from the continuum above the superconducting gap in the leads, while a gap between them opens near the Fermi level. Under voltage bias, we formulate a stochastic model that accounts for non-adiabatic processes, which change the occupations of the Andreev states. This model allows calculating the current noise spectrum and determining the Fano factor. Analyzing the finite-frequency noise, we find that the model may exhibit either an integer or a fractional AC Josephson effect, depending on the bias voltage and the size of the gaps in the Andreev spectrum. Our results assess the limitations in using the fractional Josephson radiation as a probe of topology.