Investigation of the breakpoint region in stacks with a finite number of intrinsic Josephson junctions

Abstract

We study the breakpoint region on the outermost branch of the current-voltage characteristics of stacks with different numbers of intrinsic Josephson junctions. We show that at periodic boundary conditions the breakpoint region is absent for stacks with an even number of junctions. For stacks with an odd number of junctions and for stacks with nonperiodic boundary conditions the breakpoint current increases with the number of junctions and saturates at a value corresponding to the periodic boundary conditions. The region of saturation and the saturated value depend on the coupling between the junctions. We explain the results by the parametric resonance at the breakpoint and excitation of a longitudinal plasma wave by Josephson oscillations. A method for diagnostics of the junctions in the stack is proposed.