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Applied Physics Letters

The radio-frequency impedance of individual intrinsic Josephson junctions

Johannes Leiner, Sajid Saleem, J. C. Fenton, T. Yamamoto, Kazuo Kadowaki, Paul A. Warburton

Published Dec 21, 2009• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have measured the response of an array of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ intrinsic Josephson junctions to irradiation at 3 GHz. By measuring the dependence of the switching current upon the radio-frequency current for five of the junctions in the array we show quantitatively that the junctions have identical impedances at 3 GHz, this impedance being given by the inverse of the slope of the current-voltage characteristics.

DOI
10.1063/1.3275741

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We have measured the response of an array of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ intrinsic Josephson junctions to irradiation at 3 GHz. By measuring the dependence of the switching current upon the radio-frequency current for five of the junctions in the array we show quantitatively that the junctions have identical impedances at 3 GHz, this impedance being given by the inverse of the slope of the current-voltage characteristics.
We have fabricated intrinsic Josephson junction arrays using Tl2Ba2CaCu2O8thin films. The junctions have dimensions of order 1 mum2and therefore high slope resistance in the range 1 kOmega to 10 kOmega per junction on the quasiparticle branches. We have irradiated the junctions with microwaves at a frequency of 6.37 GHz. We observe both microwave-induced vortex-flow branches and strong suppression of the switching current but only when no junctions are in the voltage state. We attribute this observation to the shunting of the high-resistance junctions by the environmental impedance, and discuss the significance of this result for the application of intrinsic junctions as THz sources and qubits.
The current–voltage characteristics of a micrometre bridge of intrinsic Josephson junctions under microwave irradiation are studied. The collective switching of the group of four junctions splits up as the AC signal amplitude is gradually increased. The switching current of the remaining group of junctions is increased with increasing radiation power. We consider that microwave irradiation injects an additional quasiparticle current into the Josephson junction array. We use ideas of breakdown of quasineutrality and quasiparticle charge imbalance in the superconducting layers and explain the experimental results by the competition between the 'current effect' and the effect of suppression of the switching current by irradiation.
With a thin gold layer, we fabricated mesa-like shunted intrinsic Josephson junction stacks on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x single crystals. Instead of the multibranch structure and large voltage jumps often observed in conventional intrinsic junctions, current–voltage characteristics typical of resistively shunted junctions were obtained. Individual Shapiro steps were clearly visible with irradiation at frequencies from a few to 20 GHz. The experiments demonstrated not only the ac Josephson effects directly but also the possibility of employing intrinsic Josephson junctions in high-frequency applications.
A high temperature superconducting YBa2Cu3Oy array of five Josephson junctions designed with additional coupling lines has been developed to demonstrate the effects of frequency locking and impedance matching for applications such as oscillators, mixers, and detectors. The Josephson self-radiation power was directly detected by a superheterodyne receiver, and Shapiro steps were also measured. The Josephson self-radiation properties reveal good quality of phase locking and microwave coupling with external circuits. The maximum self-radiation power of our array is about 50 pW which is several ten times higher than that of a single Josephson junction, and its peak point exactly satisfies the Josephson current-voltage relation. The Shapiro-step measurements show that the behavior of current-voltage curve depends on the effective inductance of coupling lines which affects the total impedance of Josephson junction array and microwave coupling. The Josephson oscillation frequency was obtained up to about 880 GHz which is 73% of the maximum available frequency calculated from the characteristic voltage of the Josephson junctions. Experimental results show that this type of Josephson junction array can improve the Josephson self-radiation power and increase the maximum detectable frequency.
With a 10 μm×10 μm mesa patterned on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 single crystals, we measure the current–voltage (I–V) curves of a stack of intrinsic Josephson junctions. Current steps are observed at an equal voltage spacing of 4 mV when the sample is subjected to microwave radiation at around 7 GHz. With increase of the microwave power, more steps occur while the spacing between neighboring steps does not seem to change. The magnitude of each step depends on the microwave power in an oscillating way. Tuning the microwave frequency causes such steps to occur over separate frequency ranges, and each range is quite narrow. A temperature rise from 4.2 to 14.3 K completely quenches the step structures. Possible explanations for the step structures, based on resonances excited by microwave or geometric resonances in the junction cavity, are discussed.