Noise-affected I-V curves in small hysteretic Josephson junctions.

Abstract

We investigate the noise-affected I-V curves of small-area Josephson junctions through experiment, simulation, and theory. In particular, we consider I-V curves in which two different states of finite voltage coexist at the same dc bias: a high-voltage state that corresponds to the usual quasiparticle branch and a low-voltage state that is characterized by thermally activated phase diffusion. The observed hysteresis between the phase-diffusion and quasiparticle branches cannot be explained within the context of the simple resistively and capacitively shunted junction (RCSJ) model but is explained by extended models in which the damping increases with frequency. Frequency-dependent damping is shown to produce a qualitative change in the attractors of the noise-free system which allows the two voltage states to be simultaneously stable. This picture is confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations which accurately reproduce the experimental I-V curves of two different samples over a wide range of temperatures. In addition we develop analytic expressions for three key parameters of the I-V curve of junctions displaying hysteresis between the phase-diffusion and quasiparticle branches: the initial slope of the phase-diffusion branch, the bias level at which the junction switches from the phase-diffusion branch to the quasiparticle branch, and the bias level at which it returns to the phase-diffusion branch.