Tunneling spectroscopy of two-level systems inside a Josephson junction

We consider a two-level system (TLS) with energy level separation plankvOmega0 inside a Josephson junction. The junction is shunted by a resistor R and is voltage V biased. If the TLS modulates the Josephson energy and/or is optically active, it is Rabi driven by the Josephson oscillations in the running phase regime near the resonance 2eV=plankvOmega0. The Rabi oscillations, in turn, translate into oscillations of current and voltage that can be detected in noise measurements. This effect provides an option to fully characterize the TLS inside Josephson junction and to find the TLS's contribution to the decoherence when the junction is used as a qubit.     

Mesoscopic Josephson effect

In the classical Josephson effect the phase difference across the junction is well defined, and the supercurrent is reduced only weakly by phase diffusion. For mesoscopic junctions with small capacitance the phase undergoes large quantum fluctuations, and the current is also decreased by Coulomb blockade effects. We discuss the behavior of the current–voltage characteristics in a large range of parameters comprising the phase diffusion regime with coherent Josephson current as well as the supercurrent peak due to incoherent Cooper pair tunneling in the Coulomb blockade regime.     

Effective boundary field theory for a Josephson junction chain with a weak link

We show that a finite Josephson junction (JJ) chain, ending with two bulk superconductors, and with a weak link at its center, may be regarded as a condensed matter realization of a two-boundary sine-Gordon model. Computing the partition function yields a remarkable analytic expression for the DC Josephson current as a function of the phase difference across the chain. We show that, in a suitable range of the chain parameters, there is a crossover of the DC Josephson current from a sinusoidal to a sawtooth behavior, which signals a transition from a regime where the boundary term is an irrelevant operator to a regime where it becomes relevant.     

Enhancement of the Josephson current by an exchange field in superconductor-ferromagnet structures

We calculate the dc Josephson current for two superconductor/ferromagnet (S/F) bilayers separated by a thin insulating film. It is demonstrated that the critical Josephson current I(c) in the junction strongly depends on the relative orientation of the effective exchange field h of the bilayers. We found that in the case of an antiparallel orientation I(c) increases at low temperatures with increasing h and at zero temperature has a singularity when h equals the superconducting gap Delta. This striking behavior contrasts with the suppression of the critical current by the magnetic moments aligned in parallel and is an interesting new effect of the interplay between superconductors and ferromagnets.     

Phase-dependent heat current of granular Josephson junction for different geometries

We theoretically investigate the phase-dependent heat transport of a temperature-biased granular Josephson junction in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field. We illustrate the influence of geometry of the junction on the thermal current. The use of granular Josephson junction rather than bulk one makes significant changes in the heat current behavior. The heat current diffraction pattern of the rectangular, circular and annular geometries with no trapped fluxons demonstrates similar to the current of s-wave superconducting junction. By increasing the number of trapped fluxon, the pattern of current behaves such as d-wave superconducting junction. The feasibility of using granular superconductors, with different geometries, controlled by the magnetic field provides an appropriate tool to obtain the desired result for a specific application.     

Peculiarities of rf SQUID response in finite magnetic fields

Single-layer washer-type high-T_c YBa₂Cu₃O_7−x rf SQUIDs with grain-boundary Josephson junctions, as well as low-T_c Nb rf SQUIDs with Nb–Al₂O₃–Nb tunnel junctions, have been investigated in finite magnetic fields. It was shown experimentally that the suppression of the critical current of the Josephson junction due to the magnetic field leads to a modulation of the amplitude of the SQUID output signal. The role of the “unwanted” junction in high-T_c rf SQUIDs, which is formed by the grain boundary running through the washer of the SQUIDs on bicrystal substrates, has also been clarified. The drop of the SQUID signal at a finite magnetic field is originated by the penetration of the magnetic field into the unwanted junction. Based on these results, a direct radio-frequency method for the determination of the first critical field H_c1 for long Josephson junctions has been developed.     

s/FI/d超导结的直流Josephson电流

在 s波超导体 /铁磁绝缘层 / d波超导体 Josephson结 (s/ FI/ d)中 ,考虑结界面铁磁绝缘层的磁散射和粗糙散射情况下 ,运用 Bd G方程和 FT的电流公式计算准粒子的输运系数及 s/ FI/ d结的直流 Josephson电流与温度 T、结两侧的相位差之间的关系。研究表明 :结界面的磁散射和粗造散射均抑制结中准粒子的 Andreev反射 ,降低了流过 s/ FI/ d结的直流 Josephson电流 ,直流Josephson电流 I随温度 T、相位差φ的变化曲线强烈地依赖于 d波超导体的晶轴方位     

Universal and measurable entanglement entropy in the spin-boson model

We study the entanglement between a qubit and its environment from the spin-boson model with Ohmic dissipation. Through a mapping to the anisotropic Kondo model, we derive the entropy of entanglement of the spin E(alpha,Delta,h), where alpha is the dissipation strength, Delta is the tunneling amplitude between qubit states, and h is the level asymmetry. For 1-alpha>Delta/omegac and (Delta,h)TK, E vanishes as (TK/h)2-2alpha, up to a logarithmic correction. For a given h, the maximum entanglement occurs at a value of alpha which lies in the crossover regime h approximately TK. We emphasize the possibility of measuring this entanglement using charge qubits subject to electromagnetic noise.     

高温超导体中约瑟夫森涡旋流阻的振荡效应

通过数值计算耦合sine-Gordon方程组研究高温超导体中约瑟夫森涡旋的运动,得到约瑟夫森涡旋电压和流阻随平面磁场和驱动电流的变化规律.固定驱动电流,约瑟夫森涡旋电压和流阻随着磁场的增大出现周期性的振荡行为,振荡周期与每层约瑟夫森结中进入一个磁通量子相对应.分析和阐明了产生这种周期性振荡的原因. 关键词： 约瑟夫森涡旋 涡旋格子 高温超导     

Josephson junction with two superconducting current components

The properties of a Josephson junction with the 2π- and 4π-periodic superconducting current component have been analyzed. In the range of low voltages, such a junction exhibits the 4π periodicity of the phase difference for the Majorana current amplitude much smaller than the Josephson current, which makes it possible to observe Josephson current oscillations with a fractional period for small dissipation β < 1 in the hysteresis region. The effect the 4π-periodic Majorana current component is also manifested in a change in the sequence of steps in the ladder structure emerging on the current–voltage (I–V) characteristic of the junction. We have determined the interval of external electromagnetic radiation amplitudes, in which the manifestation of the fractional Josephson effect on the I–V characteristic is most significant.     

Emission and absorption asymmetry in the quantum noise of a Josephson junction

We measure current fluctuations of mesoscopic devices in the quantum regime, when the frequency is of the order of or higher than the applied voltage or temperature. Detection is designed to probe separately the absorption and emission contributions of current fluctuations, i.e. the positive and negative frequencies of the Fourier transformed nonsymmetrized noise correlator. It relies on measuring the quasiparticles photon assisted tunneling current across a superconductor-insulator-superconductor junction (the detector junction) caused by the excess current fluctuations generated by quasiparticles tunneling across a Josephson junction (the source junction). We demonstrate unambiguously that the negative and positive frequency parts of the nonsymmetrized noise correlator are separately detected and that the excess current fluctuations of a voltage biased Josephson junction present a strong asymmetry between emission and absorption.     

Commensurability effects in a Josephson tunnel junction in the field of an array of magnetic particles

Commensurability effects have been theoretically studied in a hybrid system consisting of a Josephson junction located in a nonuniform field induced by an array of magnetic particles. A periodic phase-difference distribution in the junction that is caused by the formation of a regular lattice of Abrikosov vortices generated by the magnetic field of the particles in superconducting electrodes is calculated. The dependence of the critical current through the junction I _c on the applied magnetic field H is shown to differ strongly from the conventional Fraunhofer diffraction pattern because of the periodic modulation of the Josephson phase difference created by the vortices. More specifically, the I _c(H) pattern contains additional resonance peaks, whose positions and heights depend on the parameters and magnetic state of the particles in the array. These specific features of the I _c(H) dependence are observed when the period of the Josephson current modulation by the field of the magnetic particles and the characteristic scale of the change in the phase difference by the applied magnetic field are commensurable. The conditions that determine the positions of the commensurability peaks are obtained, and they are found to agree well with experimental results.     

Dynamics of the current-driven Josephson junction

The irreversible macroscopic dynamics of the Josephson junction coupled to external wires acting as a current source is derived rigorously from the underlying microscopic Hamiltonian quantum mechanics. The external systems are treated in the singular coupling limit. The use of this limit is explicitly justified via an interpretation of the singular coupling limit in terms of the relative magnitudes of system, reservoir, and coupling energies. The qualitative behavior of the macroscopic dynamical equations is shown to depend sensitively and crucially on the interaction between the wires and the superconductors and on the size of the wires: the dc Josephson effect only happens when one lets Cooper pairs be driven into the junction by collective (i.e., small) reservoirs.     

Observation of macroscopic quantum tunneling in a single Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta surface intrinsic Josephson junction

We report on the first unambiguous observation of macroscopic quantum tunneling (MQT) in a single submicron Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8+delta) surface intrinsic Josephson junction (IJJ) by measuring its temperature-dependent switching current distribution. All relevant junction parameters were determined in situ in the classical regime and were used to predict the behavior of the IJJ in the quantum regime via MQT theory. Experimental results agree quantitatively with the theoretical predictions, thus confirming the MQT picture. Furthermore, the data also indicate that the surface IJJ, where the current flows along the c axis of the crystal, has the conventional sinphi current-phase relationship.     

ac Josephson effect and resonant Cooper pair tunneling emission of a single Cooper pair transistor

We measure the high-frequency emission of a single Cooper pair transistor (SCPT) in the regime where transport is only due to tunneling of Cooper pairs. This is achieved by coupling on chip the SCPT to a superconductor-insulator-superconductor junction and by measuring the photon assisted tunneling current of quasiparticles across the junction. This technique allows a direct detection of the ac Josephson effect of the SCPT and provides evidence of Landau-Zener transitions for proper gate voltage. The emission in the regime of resonant Cooper pair tunneling is also investigated. It is interpreted in terms of transitions between charge states coupled by the Josephson effect.     

Josephson effect on YBCO break junctions

We have investigated dc and ac Josephson effects on YBa₂Cu₃O_7–x ceramic samples using the break junction technique. The critical current was measured as a function of external magnetic field and temperature. The field dependence shows superposition effects of junction and SQUID behavior. The critical current depends linearly on temperature like for SNS junctions. We observed Shapiro steps with microwave radiation with a frequency of 35 GHz at 4.2 K and 77 K, respectively. Deviations of the step height from Bessel behavior at low microwave power are explained within the Stewart-McCumber model using small capacitances of the junction in simulation calculations.     

Current-phase relation of double-barrier Josephson junctions with a two-gap superconductor as intermediate electrode

The current-phase (I-?) relation of a double-barrier Josephson junction with a two-gap superconductor as intermediate electrode is derived by means of a simplified version of Ohta’s model. As in conventional double-barrier Josephson junctions, a marked skewness in the I-? curves is present. Moreover, as in heterotic Josephson devices, a reduction of the maximum Josephson current is predicted. An appropriate experiment to verify the rich behavior of this type of Josephson device is suggested.     

Flux qubit with a large loop size and tunable Josephson junctions

We present the design of a superconducting flux qubit with a large loop inductance. The large loop inductance is desirable for coupling between qubits. The loop is configured into a gradiometer form that could reduce the interference from environmental magnetic noise. A combined Josephson junction, i.e., a DC-SQUID is used to replace the small Josephson junction in the usual 3-JJ (Josephaon junction) flux qubit, leading to a tunable energy gap by using an independent external flux line. We perform numerical calculations to investigate the dependence of the energy gap on qubit parameters such as junction capacitance, critical current, loop inductance, and the ratio of junction energy between small and large junctions in the flux qubit. We suggest a range of values for the parameters.     

在一个磁通量子内dc Josephson电流的阶梯效应(Ⅱ)——大尺寸Josephson结

大尺寸的Josephson结放置于Q值足够高的谐振腔中,当其Josephson频率ω=2cV₀/h激励起腔的第r个本征模谐振时,这个振荡将反馈辐照结,必须考虑反馈场本征模的空间部分在结上是不同的。理论上得到了和文献[2]不同的结果,给出了阶跃电流随磁场的变化,分析了腔的反馈场本征模和Josephson结的辐射电磁波空间匹配的条件,解释了为什么大尺寸的Josephson结不存在周期小于φ₀的阶梯效应的物理原因。 关键词：     

Effect of inductive and capacitive coupling on the current–voltage characteristic and electromagnetic radiation from a system of Josephson junctions

We have studied the current–voltage characteristic of a system of long Josephson junctions taking into account the inductive and capacitive coupling. The dependence of the average time derivative of the phase difference on the bias current and spatiotemporal dependences of the phase difference and magnetic field in each junction are considered. The possibility of branching of the current–voltage characteristic in the region of zero field step, which is associated with different numbers of fluxons in individual Josephson junctions, is demonstrated. The current–voltage characteristic of the system of Josephson junctions is compared with the case of a single junction, and it is shown that the observed branching is due to coupling between the junctions. The intensity of electromagnetic radiation associated with motion of fluxons is calculated, and the effect of coupling between junctions on the radiation power is analyzed.