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arXiv:0807.3798

Multiple-Retrapping Process in High-$T_c$ Intrinsic Josephson Junctions

Myung‐Ho Bae, Mitrabhanu Sahu, Hu-Jong Lee, Alexey Bezryadin

Published Jul 24, 2008• 0 citations
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Abstract

We report measurements of switching-current distribution (SWCD) from a phase-diffusion branch to a quasiparticle-tunneling branch as a function of temperature in a cuprate-based intrinsic Josephson junction. Contrary to the thermal-activation model, the width of the SWCD increases with decreasing temperature, down to 1.5 K. Based on the multiple-retrapping model, we quantitatively demonstrate that the quality factor of the junction in the phase-diffusion regime determines the observed temperature dependence of the SWCD.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.0807.3798

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Multiple-Retrapping Process in High-TcT_cTc​ Intrinsic Josephson Junctions
We report measurements of switching-current distribution (SWCD) from a phase-diffusion branch to a quasiparticle-tunneling branch as a function of temperature in a cuprate-based intrinsic Josephson junction. Contrary to the thermal-activation model, the width of the SWCD increases with decreasing temperature, down to 1.5 K. Based on the multiple-retrapping model, we quantitatively demonstrate that the quality factor of the junction in the phase-diffusion regime determines the observed temperature dependence of the SWCD.
We report measurements of switching current distribution (SWCD) from a phase-diffusion branch (PDB) to a quasiparticle-tunneling branch (QTB) as a function of temperature in a cuprate-based intrinsic Josephson junction. Contrary to the thermal-activation model, the width of the SWCD increases and the corresponding switching rate shows a nonlinear behavior with a negative curvature in a semilogarithmic scale with decreasing temperature down to 1.5 K. Based on the multiple-retrapping model, we quantitatively demonstrate that the frequency-dependent junction quality factor, representing the energy dissipation in a phase-diffusion regime, determines the observed temperature dependence of the SWCD and the switching rate. We also show that a retrapping process from the QTB to the PDB is related to the low-frequency limit damping.
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We investigated macroscopic quantum tunneling (MQT) of Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oy{\text{Bi}}_{2}{\text{Sr}}_{2}{\text{CaCu}}_{2}{\text{O}}_{y}Bi2​Sr2​CaCu2​Oy​ intrinsic Josephson junctions (IJJs) for two device structures. One is a small mesa, which is a few nanometers thick with only two or three IJJs, and the other is a stack of a few hundred IJJs in a narrow bridge structure. The experimental results regarding the switching-current distribution for the first switch from the zero-voltage state were in good agreement with the conventional theory for a single Josephson junction, indicating that the crossover temperature from thermal activation to the MQT regime for the former device structure was similar to that for the latter device structure. Together with the observation of multiphoton transitions between quantized energy levels in the MQT regime, these results strongly suggest that the observed MQT behavior is intrinsic to a single IJJ in high-Tc{T}_{c}Tc​ cuprates and is independent of the device structure. The switching-current distribution for the second switch from the first resistive state, which was carefully distinguished from the first switch, was also compared with respect to the two device structures. In spite of the differences between the heat transfer environments, the second switch exhibited a similar temperature-independent behavior for both devices up to a much higher temperature than the crossover temperature for the first switch. We argue that this cannot be explained in terms of self-heating caused by dissipative currents after the first switch. As possible candidates for this phenomenon, the MQT process for the second switch and the effective increase in the electronic temperature due to the quasiparticle injection are discussed.
We report a detailed study of the phase switching rate from the first to the fourth switch for a small stack of Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oy intrinsic Josephson junctions (IJJs). Experimental results were analyzed by using the conventional single-junction model including the thermally-activated phase escape and the multiple phase retrapping. It is shown that the phase retrapping effects are more prominent for higher order switches, even for the underdamped IJJs showing a large hysteresis in the current–voltage characteristics. This clearly suggests that the tilted washboard potential representing the phase switch from the finite voltage state in IJJs can be influenced by a rapid oscillation generated in a phase-switched junction.
The moderately damped regime in Josephson junctions (JJ) is quite common in devices characterized by low critical currents and, therefore, by low Josephson energies. Measurements of the switching current distribution (SCD) are a direct way of determining the phase dynamics in the nontrivial case of moderate damping, which is becoming more common with advances in nanopatterning superconductors and in materials science for fabricating hybrid systems. We report measurements of SCDs, in both the thermal and quantum regimes for moderately damped YBaCuO grain boundary biepitaxial JJs. A direct transition from a phase diffusion regime to macroscopic quantum tunnelling occurs at about 130 mK. The crossover to the quantum regime is determined by the magnetic field and the phase dynamics can be described by a fully consistent set of junction parameters obtained by numerical simulation.
We have measured and propose a model for switching rates in a hysteretic dc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) in the regime where phase-diffusion processes start to occur. We show that the switching rates in this regime are smaller than the rates given by Kramers' formula due to retrapping of the Josephson phase. The retrapping process, which is affected by the frequency dependent impedance of the environment of the dc SQUID, leads to a peaked second moment of the switching distribution as a function of temperature. The temperatures where the peaks occur are proportional to the critical current of the dc SQUID.