J Lisenfeld | PubMed Health

PubMed2006

Enhanced macroscopic quantum tunneling in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 + delta intrinsic Josephson-junction stacks.

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.

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PubMed2003

Quantum dynamics of a single vortex.

Vortices occur naturally in a wide range of gases and fluids, from macroscopic to microscopic scales. In Bose-Einstein condensates of dilute atomic gases, superfluid helium and superconductors, the existence of vortices is a consequence of the quantum nature of the system. Quantized vortices of supercurrent are generated by magnetic flux penetrating the material, and play a key role in determining the material properties and the performance of superconductor-based devices. At high temperatures the dynamics of such vortices are essentially classical, while at low temperatures previous experiments have suggested collective quantum dynamics. However, the question of whether vortex tunnelling occurs at low temperatures has been addressed only for large collections of vortices. Here we study the quantum dynamics of an individual vortex in a superconducting Josephson junction. By measuring the statistics of the vortex escape from a controllable pinning potential, we demonstrate the existence of quantized levels of the vortex energy within the trapping potential well and quantum tunnelling of the vortex through the pinning barrier.

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