DC Josephson Effect

Energy levels in the normal and superconducting state with no voltage applied (left). When a potential qV is applied, raising the Fermi level of the normal metal to that top of the energy gap in the superconductor, current will begin to flow (right). 

Current-voltage for the DC Josephson effect. The supercurrent can exist with no voltage drop until it reaches Jo, at which point the supercurrent switches to the normal current. 

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Josephson110 Effect. If two superconductors are separated by a thin layer (<3 nm for an insulator, several micrometers for a metal), then both a DC Josephson effect and an AC Josephson effect can occur. In the DC Josephson effect, a supercurrent can bridge the layer by quantum-mechanical tunneling, but there is a change in phase, which can be detected. It is very sensitive to magnetic fields indeed the supercurrent has the form f = f0 sin (O/O0)/ 7i(/0), where I0 depends on the temperature and the structure of the junction. If a DC potential V is applied across a Josephson junction, then the AC Josephson effect creates a response at a frequency... 

As we explore the interaction of cold-atom systems with microwave and terahertz radiation, we find that they have some unique properties as detectors. A comparison with superconductor-based detectors such as SQUlDs is instractive. Because of the third law of thermodynamics, i.e., a system in a single quantum state has zero entropy, the response of a SQUID is almost free of thermal noise. But an additional properly of SQUIDs is that they exhibit the phenomenon of coherence, i.e., wave interference, which leads to entirely new effects, e.g. the AC and DC Josephson effects. Cold atom clouds share this behavior, as we will discuss below. 

The RF SQUID is based on the AC Josephson effect, uses only one Josephson junction, and is less sensitive than the DC SQUID, but is cheaper and easier to manufacture its SQUID is inductively coupled to a resonant tank circuit. Depending on the external magnetic field, as the SQUID operates in the resistive mode, the effective inductance of the tank circuit changes, thus changing the resonant frequency of the tank circuit. These frequency measurements can be easily done, and thus the losses that appear as the voltage across the load resistor in the circuit are a periodic function of the applied magnetic flux with a period of 0. 

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