Effect of quantum noise and tunneling on the fluctuational voltage-current characteristics and the lifetime of the zero-voltage state in Josephson junctions

Journal Article · Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1986 · Phys. Rev. B: Condens. Matter; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.34.1514· OSTI ID:5582225

Mel'nikov, V I; Suetoe, A

The minima of the potential energy for the dynamical variable phi of a Josephson junction are separated by barriers of height h-dash-barI-italic/sub c-italic//e, where I-italic/sub c-italic/ is the critical current. At low temperatures, T-italic<h-dash-bar..cap omega../2..pi.. (..cap omega.. is the Josephson plasma frequency). We consider this problem for high-quality junctions (R-italicC-italic..cap omega..>>1, R-italic and C-italic are the resistance and the capacitance of the junction), accounting for the effect of a Johnson-Nyquist noise and quantum tunneling at the barrier top. With a simplifying assumption, we derive a pair of integral equations containing an e-italicn-italice-italicr-italicg-italicy-italic v-italica-italicr-italici-italica-italicb-italicl-italice-italic for the steady-state distribution of phi and phi-dot, and solve it by a modification of the Wiener-Hopf method. The result is a formula for the current dependence of the fluctuational voltage, valid for currents I-italic<4I-italic/sub c-italic//..pi..RC..cap omega... We discuss the ohmic resistance of the junction, the case of a relatively high damping (1<..0, and perturbative quantum corrections in (h-dash-bar..cap omega../T-italic)/sup 2/<<1.

• Research Organization: Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Moscow, U.S.S.R.
• OSTI ID: 5582225
• Journal Information: Phys. Rev. B: Condens. Matter; (United States), Journal Name: Phys. Rev. B: Condens. Matter; (United States) Vol. 34:3; ISSN PRBMD
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

420201* -- Engineering-- Cryogenic Equipment &amp; Devices
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
DAMPING
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
EQUATIONS
FLUCTUATIONS
INTEGRAL EQUATIONS
JOSEPHSON JUNCTIONS
JUNCTIONS
MECHANICS
NOISE
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
QUANTUM MECHANICS
SUPERCONDUCTING JUNCTIONS
TEMPERATURE NOISE
TUNNEL EFFECT
VARIATIONS