Phase slips in superconducting weak links
Superconducting vortices and phase slips are primary mechanisms of dissipation in superconducting, superfluid, and cold-atom systems. While the dynamics of vortices is fairly well described, phase slips occurring in quasi-one- dimensional superconducting wires still elude understanding. The main reason is that phase slips are strongly nonlinear time-dependent phenomena that cannot be cast in terms of small perturbations of the superconducting state. Here we study phase slips occurring in superconducting weak links. Thanks to partial suppression of superconductivity in weak links, we employ a weakly nonlinear approximation for dynamic phase slips. This approximation is not valid for homogeneous superconducting wires and slabs. Using the numerical solution of the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation and bifurcation analysis of stationary solutions, we show that the onset of phase slips occurs via an infinite period bifurcation, which is manifested in a specific voltage-current dependence. Our analytical results are in good agreement with simulations.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 1349521
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review B, Journal Name: Physical Review B Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 95; ISSN 2469-9950
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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