Critical current of a nonuniform Josephson junction at an intergrain boundary with a random distribution of dislocations

The critical current of a nonuniform intergrain Josephson junction is calculated on the assumption that the superconductivity is suppressed by local stresses produced by randomly distributed boundary dislocations. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 65, No. 1, 32–37 (10 January 1997)     

Stochastic dynamics of a Josephson fluxon in an inhomogeneous junction

A study is made of fluxon motion in a long Josephson junction with a local inhomogeneity (microresistor) in the presence of an alternating external current. Nonlinear resonances in the fluxon dynamics are considered. The process by which a fluxon trapped at an inhomogeneity is stochastically depinned under the influence of a periodic current is investigated analytically and numerically. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 67, 57–61 (August 1997)     

Competing boundary interactions in a Josephson junction network with an impurity

We analyze a perturbation of the boundary Sine-Gordon model where two boundary terms of different periodicities and scaling dimensions are coupled to a Kondo-like spin degree of freedom. We show that, by pertinently engineering the coupling with the spin degree of freedom, a competition between the two boundary interactions may be induced, and that this gives rise to nonperturbative phenomena, such as the emergence of novel quantum phases: indeed, we demonstrate that the strongly coupled fixed point may become unstable as a result of the “deconfinement” of a new set of phase-slip operators — the short instantons — associated with the less relevant boundary operator. We point out that a Josephson junction network with a pertinent impurity located at its center provides a physical realization of this boundary double Sine-Gordon model. For this Josephson junction network, we prove that the competition between the two boundary interactions stabilizes a robust finite coupling fixed point and, at a pertinent scale, allows for the onset of 4e superconductivity.     

Electromagnetic waves in a randomly inhomogeneous Josephson junction

Spectrum modification and damping of Josephson plasma waves induced by random inhomogeneities of the critical current through the superconductor contact and the averaged Green function of such excitations are analyzed. In the self-consistent approximation that makes it possible to take into account multiple wave scattering on the inhomogeneities, the frequency and damping of averaged waves, as well as position ν _m and peak width Δν of the Fourier transform imaginary part of the averaged Green function, are determined as functions of wavevector k. The evolution of such functions with the variation of the correlation radius and the relative r.m.s. fluctuations of inhomogeneities is studied. The inhomogeneity-induced wave frequency decrease observed in the long wavelength spectral region qualitatively agrees with the ν _m behavior. It is established that in the case of “long-range” inhomogeneities, the linear dependence of damping on k changes to the inversely proportional one, and damping tends to zero as k → 0, while Δν at small k attains its maximal values due to nonuniform broadening. In the presence of “short-range” inhomogeneities, the wave damping and Δν are found to be similar functions of k. The results are compared to the numerical calculation data.     

Josephson current in an irradiated Weyl semimetal junction

The influence of the off-resonant circularly polarized light on the Josephson current in the time-reversal broken superconducting Weyl semimetal junctions is investigated by using the Bogoliubov–de Gennes equation and the transfer matrix approach. Both the zero momentum BCS pairing states and the finite momentum Fulde–Ferrell–Larkin–Ovchinnikov(FFLO) pairing states are considered for the Weyl superconductors. When a circularly polarized light is applied, it is shown that the current phase relation remains unchanged for the BCS pairing with the increasing of incident radiation intensity A_0. For FFLO pairing, the Josephson current exhibits the 0–π transition and periodic oscillation as a function of A_0. The dependence of free energy and critical current on A_0 are also investigated.     

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.     

Electromagnetic waves with a negative group velocity in a randomly inhomogeneous Josephson junction

Electromagnetic waves in a randomly inhomogeneous Josephson junction have been investigated by the averaged Green’s function method for a nonmonotonic decay of the correlations of inhomogeneities. Modifications of the spectrum and the decay of these excitations caused by spatial fluctuations of the critical current of the Josephson junction have been studied. The regions of the values of the frequency, the wave number, and the stochastic parameters of the medium, at which the waves have a negative group velocity, have been determined.     

Critical behavior of frustrated Josephson junction arrays with bond disorder

The scaling behavior of the current-voltage (IV) characteristics of a two-dimensional proximity-coupled Josephson junction array (JJA) with quenched bond disorder was investigated for frustrations f = 1/5, 1/3, 2/5, and 1/2. For all these frustrations including 1/5 and 2/5 where a strongly first-order phase transition is expected in the absence of disorder, the IV characteristics exhibited a good scaling behavior. The critical exponent nu indicates that bond disorder may drive the phase transitions to be continuous but not into the Ising universality class, contrary to what was observed in Monte Carlo simulations. The dynamic critical exponent z for JJA's was found to be only 0.60-0.77.     

Josephson current in a clean superconductor normal-metal superconductor junction

Based on a simple matrix method, we investigate the effects of Fermi vector mismatch and elastic barrier on the dc Josephoson current through a ballistic, normal, one-dimensional quantum channel in contact with two superconducting electrodes. Our results are able to account for the recent experimental results.     

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.     

Josephson current in a clean superconductor normal-metal superconductor junction

Based on a simple matrix method, we investigate the effects of Fermi vector mismatch and elastic barrier on the dc Josephoson current through a ballistic, normal, one-dimensional quantum channel in contact with two superconducting electrodes. Our results are able to account for the recent experimental results.     

Mesoscopic fluctuations of the Josephson current of an S-I-S junction with weak structural disorder

It is shown that in the range of tunneling resonance energies of an S-I-S (superconductor-insulator-superconductor) junction with weak (low impurity concentrations) structural disorder in the I-layer, the average critical current and the magnitude of its mesoscopic fluctuations are determined by tunneling along quantum resonance-percolation trajectories. For a “small” junction situated in a parallel magnetic field at temperature T = 0 conditions for smallness of the mesoscopic fluctuations are obtained and an estimate is made of the range of parameters in which the resonance mechanism for supercurrent propagation predominates.     

On the current-voltage characteristic of a Josephson junction with a high critical current density

A theory is constructed for the current-voltage characteristic of a Josephson junction with a high critical current density described by nonlocal vortex electrodynamics in the approximation of small dissipation due to the single-particle conductivity of the Josephson junction. The role of the resonant excitation of generalized short-wavelength Swihart waves is determined. New quantitative properties of the current-voltage characteristic, which is an envelope of wave excitation resonances, are established. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 113, 2148–2161 (June 1998)     

Spin Josephson current in a ferromagnet/noncentrosymmetric superconductor junction

We investigate the equilibrium spin transport in a ferromagnet/noncentrosymmetric superconductor (FM/NCS) junction where the NCS has a dominant triplet order parameter and helical edge state. Based on the symmetry analysis and numerical calculation, we demonstrate that there is a nonzero spin supercurrent flowing in the junction, which stems from the exchange coupling between the FM magnetization and triplet Cooper-pair spin. It is also found that a transverse spin current other than the helical edge spin current is flowing along the interface of the junction, and its polarization is related to the longitudinal spin supercurrent. Besides, an equilibrium Hall current is also shown to flow along the junction’s interface due to the broken time-reversal symmetry from the FM.     

Side-gate modulation of critical current in mesoscopic Josephson junction

We study the normal state conductance and the Josephson current in a superconductor–2DEG–superconductor structure where the size/shape of the 2DEG-region can be modified by an additional side-gate electrode. The considered transport properties follow from the retarded Green function which we compute by employing a tight-binding-like representation of the Hamiltonian in the 2DEG region. Our model studies offer a qualitative demonstration of the recently observed effects caused by side-gate modulation.     

Magnetic field dependence of the maximum Josephson current in a double-barrier junction

The influence of a constant magnetic field on the maximum Josephson current of a double-barrier junction is studied. Owing to the peculiarity of the current–phase relation of this composite device, the resulting Fraunhofer-like pattern shows an overall enhancement of the maximum Josephson current with respect to the usual single-junction curves for very small difference in the coupling energies of the two pairs of adjacent layers in the system.