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arXiv:cond-mat/0412604 · Physical Review Letters

Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling in a d -Wave High- TC Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ Superconductor

K. Inomata, Shigeo Sato, Koji Nakajima, Akihiro Tanaka, Yoshihiko Takano, Huabing Wang, Masanori Nagao, H. Hatano, Shiro Kawabata

Published Sep 2, 2005• 178 citations
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Abstract

While Josephson-junction-like structures intrinsic to the layered cuprate high temperature superconductors offer an attractive stage for exploiting possible applications to new quantum technologies, the low energy quasiparticle excitations characteristically present in these d-wave superconductors may easily destroy the coherence required. Here we demonstrate for the first time the feasibility of macroscopic quantum tunneling in the intrinsic Josephson junctions of a high temperature superconductor Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8 + delta), and find it to be characterized by a high classic-to-quantum crossover temperature and a relatively weak quasiparticle dissipation.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.95.107005

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While Josephson-junction-like structures intrinsic to the layered cuprate high temperature superconductors offer an attractive stage for exploiting possible applications to new quantum technologies, the low energy quasiparticle excitations characteristically present in these d-wave superconductors may easily destroy the coherence required. Here we demonstrate for the first time the feasibility of macroscopic quantum tunneling in the intrinsic Josephson junctions of a high temperature superconductor Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8 + delta), and find it to be characterized by a high classic-to-quantum crossover temperature and a relatively weak quasiparticle dissipation.
We report an experimental observation of the macroscopic quantum tunnelling (MQT) in a d-wave high-temperature superconductor (HTSC) Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ intrinsic Josephson junction (IJJs). It is well known that the current-biased Josephson tunnel junction provides an ideal stage for studying a variety of macroscopic quantum phenomena such as MQT. They have been studied and observed in low-temperature superconductor (LTSC) Josephson junctions since the early 1980s and have been established well by now. On the other hand, in the case of HTSC the d-wave pairing symmetry allows for dissipative quasiparticle excitations within the superconducting energy gap, which is expected to severely interfere with an observation of MQT. Contrary to this naive conception, our experimental results have explained that the effects of the nodal quasiparticles are not strong enough to obscure the observation of the MQT. Furthermore, we found that the MQT in IJJs was observed at approximately 1 K, which was ten times higher than that of LTSC Josephson junctions. This higher classical-to-quantum crossover temperature is due to their high plasma frequency. We also discuss the resonant activation of IJJs in the presence of microwave radiation.
The escape rate from the zero voltage state in a superconducting Josephson junction (JJ) is determined by the temperature, but it saturates at low temperature due to macroscopic quantum tunneling (MQT). Complications due to d-wave symmetry in a high temperature superconductor, like low energy quasiparticles and an unconventional current-phase relation, may influence the escape rate. We report, for the first time to our knowledge, the observation of MQT in a YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7-delta) grain boundary biepitaxial JJ. This proves that dissipation can be significantly reduced by a proper junction configuration, which is of significance for quantum coherence.
The utilization of a high-Tc superconductor for implementing a superconducting qubit is to be expected. Recent researches on the quantum property of Josephson junctions in high-Tc superconductors indicate that the low energy quasiparticle excitation is weak enough to observe the macroscopic quantum tunneling. Therefore, a detailed study on the quantum property of high-Tc Josephson junctions becomes more important for applications. We show our experimental results of the macroscopic tunneling of current biased intrinsic Josephson junctions in Bi-2212 and its resonant activation in the presence of microwave radiation.
Macroscopic quantum tunneling (MQT) has been observed in an intrinsic Josephson junction (IJJ) stack of a Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8+δ (BSCCO) single crystalline whisker with high precision using a home made setup. The cross-over temperature between thermal activation and MQT was about 260 mK, and the Josephson plasma frequency was estimated to be 86 GHz. Both the thermal escape theory and the MQT theory are consistent with the experiments. These facts strongly suggest that single crystalline BSCCO whiskers are high enough quality to be used as intrinsic Josephson quantum devices such as intrinsic Josephson phase qubits. This is the first demonstration of MQT in BSCCO single crystalline whiskers.
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 have investigated macroscopic quantum tunneling in Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8 + delta) intrinsic Josephson junctions at millikelvin temperatures using microwave irradiation. Measurements show that the escape rate for uniformly switching stacks of Nu junctions is about Nu(2) times higher than that of a single junction having the same plasma frequency. We argue that this gigantic enhancement of the macroscopic quantum tunneling rate in stacks is boosted by current fluctuations which occur in the series array of junctions loaded by the impedance of the environment.