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Physical Review B

Multiple-retrapping processes in the phase-diffusion regime of high- Tc intrinsic Josephson junctions

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

Published Mar 13, 2009• 25 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.79.104509

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Multiple-Retrapping Process in High-TcT_cTc​ Intrinsic Josephson Junctions
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We investigate the phase dynamics of moderately damped NbN/AlN/NbN Josephson junctions and we present experimental results on detailed aspects of phase diffusion processes. We measure both single escape and multiple escape and retrapping events obtaining a crossover temperature T* from Kramers to phase diffusion switching. We observe a clear dependence of the crossover temperature T* by the bias current ramp rate, while the damping factor Q remains the same. The measured effect is in strong agreement with theoretical predictions reported by Fenton and Warburton.
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