Josephson effect in a Coulomb-blockaded SINIS junction

The problem of a Josephson current through a Coulomb-blocked nanoscale superconductor-normal-superconductor structure with tunnel contacts is reconsidered. Two different contributions to the phase-biased supercurrent I(?) are identified, which are dominant in the limits of weak and strong Coulomb interaction. Full expression for the free energy valid at arbitrary Coulomb strength is found. The current derived from this free energy interpolates between known results for weak and strong Coulomb interaction as the phase bias changes from 0 to π. In the broad range of Coulomb strength, the current-phase relation is substantially nonsinusoidal and qualitatively different from the case of semiballistic SNS junctions. The Coulomb interaction leads to the appearance of a local minimum in the current at some intermediate value of the phase difference applied to the junction.     

Enhancement of the supercurrent at a finite voltage in a sandwich-type ballistic SINIS junction

A large, reentrant, Josephson current is observed in SINIS (Nb/Al/AlOx/Al/AlOx/Al/Nb) junctions at a finite voltage close to Delta/e (where Delta is the superconducting energy gap in S) and a bias current exceeding the zero-voltage Josephson current. The effect is studied using a multiterminal device configuration. A theoretical interpretation in terms of quantized electron states in the N layer is provided.     

AC Josephson effect in the long voltage-biased SINIS junction

Theory of non-stationary coherent effects is developed for superconductor-normal-superconductor (SNS) structures with relatively strong normal scattering on S/N interfaces (interface resistance is large compared to intrinsic resistance of N metal). Analytical expressions are found for the time-dependent anomalous Green’s functions induced in the N region under the fixed-voltage-bias. The amplitude of the current oscillations is determined in non-equilibrium conditions. Non-stationary correction to the distribution function is calculated in high-temperature limit and found to be slowly decreasing with the temperature, leading to the dominance of the second-harmonic term in the Josephson current, I _s (t) ∝ sin(4eVt) at high temperatures and low voltage. The article is published in the original.     

Coulomb interactions and nanoscale electronic inhomogeneities in manganites

We study electronic inhomogeneities in manganites using simulations on a microscopic model with Coulomb interactions amongst two electronic fluids-one localized (polaronic), the other extended-and dopant ions. The long range Coulomb interactions frustrate phase separation induced by the large on site repulsion between the fluids. A single phase ensues which is inhomogeneous at a nanoscale, but homogeneous on mesoscales, with many features that agree with experiments. This, we argue, is the origin of nanoscale inhomogeneities in manganites, rather than phase competition or disorder effects.     

Quantum transmission across a low-dimensional nanoscale diffuse junction

The transmission across a nano-scale diffuse junction between two metals is studied numerically for 1D wires and 2D ribbons within a tight-binding model. In such a situation, a junction electric potential must appear to equilibrate the electrochemical potential on each side of the junction. We compute the transmission under two very different potential distributions and we find that the typical transmission does not depend on the details of this distribution. The transmission is found to follow a scaling law. The variations of the 1D transmission are explained in a semi-classical way by considering the multiple reflections caused by the barriers due to the on-site energy mismatch between the two metals. Both the 1D and 2D results can also be partly interpreted in the frame of the Anderson theory of localisation.     

Dynamic properties of a Josephson junction balanced comparator with Coulomb blockade

The dynamics of a Josephson junction balanced comparator with Coulomb blockade has been analyzed. An expression for the time resolution in the case of a linearly increasing gating voltage pulse has been derived with regard to the Bloch inductance. It has been shown that the time resolution depends on the Bloch inductance of small Josephson junctions. Estimates have confirmed the feasibility of a subpicosecond time resolution for balance Josephson comparators with Coulomb blockade.     

Coulomb effects in a ballistic one-channel S-S-S device

We develop a theory of Coulomb oscillations in superconducting devices in the limit of small charging energy E _C ≪Δ. We consider a small superconducting grain with finite capacitance connected to two superconducting leads by nearly ballistic single-channel quantum point contacts. The temperature is assumed to be very low, so there are no single-particle excitations on the grain. Then the behavior of the system can be described in terms of the quantum mechanics of the superconducting phase on the island. The Josephson energy as a function of this phase has two minima that become degenerate when the phase difference on the leads equals to π, the tunneling amplitude between them being controlled by the gate voltage on the grain. We find the Josephson current and its low-frequency fluctuations, and predict their periodic dependence with period 2e on the induced charge Q _x =CV _g . Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 114, 640–653 (August 1998) Published in English in the original Russian journal. Reproduced here with stylistic changes by the Translation Editor     

Observation of shot-noise-induced asymmetry in the Coulomb blockaded Josephson junction

We have investigated the influence of shot noise on the IV curves of a single mesoscopic Josephson junction. We observe a linear enhancement of zero-bias conductance of the Josephson junction with increasing shot-noise power. Moreover, the IV curves become increasingly asymmetric. Our analysis on the asymmetry shows that the Coulomb blockade of Cooper pairs is strongly influenced by the non-Gaussian character of the shot noise.     

Coulomb threshold effects in ionization

The KFR theory with Coulomb corrections is used to analyze photoemission spectra from hydrogen atoms immersed in a high-intensity laser field. The results of our treatment qualitatively agree with the experimental data provided by Rudenko et al. [1], reporting the observation of peaks in the ionization signal for intensities in the tunneling regime. The positions of these peaks seem to be intensity independent. The interpretation of such a phenomenon based on the applied Coulomb-corrected KFR theory attributes the above-mentioned features of the photoionization spectra to the rescattering and channel-closing phenomena.     

Coulomb effects in quasi-free scattering

Using the exact three-body scattering theory for Coulomb-like potentials a new result for the quasi-free breakup amplitude is obtained. It consists in adding an easily calculable factor to the existing expression for the modulus of the quasi-free breakup amplitude. The importance of this factor is discussed by illustrative examples for the breakup reactions.     

Coulomb effects in artificial molecules

We study the capacitance spectra of artificial molecules consisting of two and three coupled quantum dots from an extended Hubbard Hamiltonian model that takes into account quantum confinement, intra- and inter-dot Coulomb interaction and tunneling coupling between all single particle states in nearest neighbor dots. We find that, for weak coupling, the interdot Coulomb interaction dominates the formation of a collective molecular state. We also calculate the effects of correlations on the tunneling probability through the evaluation of the spectral weights, and corroborate the importance of selection rules for understanding experimental conductance spectra.     

Strong Coulomb correlation effects in ZnO

The electronic structure, band parameters, and optical spectra of wurtzite-type ZnO were studied by first-principles calculations within different approximations of the density functional theory. The local-density approximation underestimates the band gap, the energy levels of the Zn-3d states, the band dispersion, the crystal-field splitting, the spin-orbit interaction, and location of peaks in the optical spectra. The generalized-gradient approximation slightly corrects the discrepancies with the experimental findings and it shows good agreement for the optical spectra with experimental data at energies 10-20 eV for E⊥c. Studies within the local-density approximation with the multiorbital mean-field Hubbard potential show that strong Coulomb correlations are in operation. From effective mass calculations it is found that holes are much heavier and more anisotropic than the conduction-band electrons in ZnO.     

Nonequilibrium relaxations and aging effects in a two-dimensional Coulomb glass

The relaxations of conductivity have been studied in the glassy regime of a strongly disordered two-dimensional electron system in Si after a temporary change of carrier density during the waiting time tw. Two types of response have been observed: (a) monotonic, where relaxations exhibit aging, i.e., dependence on history, determined by tw and temperature; (b) nonmonotonic, where a memory of the sample history is lost. The conditions that separate the two regimes also have been determined.     

Coulomb effects in relativistic nuclear collisions

We derive simple analytical formulas for Coulomb final-state interactions and apply them to the analysis of recent data on nuclear collisions. The π^?/π⁺ ratio, the π⁺ inclusive cross section, and the n/p ratio are studied. A relativistic field theoretic model is used to derive the formulas to first order in Zα. Using well-known non-perturbative results, we recast those formulas into an approximate non-perturbative form valid when finite-size effects are negligible. This allows us to calculate the important k → 0 limit. The final formulas are covariant and take into account multiple independently moving charged fragments of finite size and finite thermal expansion velocities. Our studies demonstrate analytically the complexity and importance of Coulomb distortions in nuclear collisions.     

Coulomb effects in semiconductor quantum dots

This paper presents a new model for the Internet graph (AS graph) based on the concept of heuristic trade-off optimization, introduced by Fabrikant, Koutsoupias and Papadimitriou in [5] to grow a random tree with a heavily tailed degree distribution. We propose here a generalization of this approach to generate a general graph, as a candidate for modeling the Internet. We present the results of our simulations and an analysis of the standard parameters measured in our model, compared with measurements from the physical Internet graph.Received: 9 February 2004, Published online: 14 May 2004PACS: 89.75.-k Complex systems - 89.75.Hc Networks and genealogical trees - 89.75.Da Systems obeying scaling laws - 89.75.Fb Structures and organization in complex systems - 89.65.Gh Economics; econophysics, financial markets, business and managementLRI: http: //www.lri.fr/~ihameli; CNRS, LIP, ENS Lyon : http: //www.ens-lyon.fr/~nschaban     

Three-body Coulomb effects in neutral-particle-exchange singularity

In a three-body model with Coulomb interactions the Faddeev equations for the Alt-Grassberger-Sandhas transition operators are used to find the leading term of the neutron-transfer amplitude near the exchange singularity in the cos plane. We derive formulae containing three-body Coulomb effects for the renormalization of the second-order exchange pole in the calculation of observables, such as the cross section and polarizations.     

Coulomb effects in low energy fission

The structures in the total kinetic energy (TKE) distributions in cold fission of²³⁴U and²³⁶U are interpreted in terms of the Coulomb interaction energy (C) between fragments at the scission point. The maximal value ofC, C _max, corresponding to the most compact scission configuration, is calculated for several mass fragmentations. It is shown that withQ being constant,C _max increases if one increases the charge asymmetry for a given primary fragmentation. This condition produces oscillations with a period of approximately 5 amu ofC _max as a function of the light fragment mass which are correlated with the observed oscillations of the maximal value of TKE. Moreover, the enhancement of the yields of the more asymmetric charge fragmentation for a given fragmentation is explained.     

Proximity effects in a superconductor/ferromagnet junction

A proximity effect in an s-wave superconductor/ferromagnet (SC/F) junction is theoretically studied using the second order perturbation theory for the tunneling Hamiltonian and Green's function method. We calculate a pair amplitude induced by the proximity effect in a weak ferromagnetic metal (FM) and a half-metal (HM). In the SC/FM junction, it is found that a spin-singlet pair amplitude (Ψ_s) and spin-triplet pair amplitude (Ψ_t) are induced in FM and both amplitudes depend on the frequency in the Matsubara representation. Ψ_s is an even function and Ψ_t is an odd function with respect to the Matsubara frequency (ω_n). In the SC/HM junction, we examine the proximity effects by taking account of magnon excitations in HM. It is found that the triplet-pair correlation is induced in HM. The induced pair amplitude in HM shows a damped oscillation as a function of the position and contains the terms of even and odd functions of ω_n as in the case of the SC/FM junction. We discuss that in our tunneling model the pair amplitude of even function of ω_n only contributes to a Josephson current.