Far-infrared frequency dependence of the ac Josephson effect in niobium point contacts
- 1 October 1978
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review B
- Vol. 18 (7), 3282-3292
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.18.3282
Abstract
We have measured the far-infrared frequency dependence of the strength of the ac Josephson effect in Nb cat-whisker point contacts, which have consistent and reproducible behavior and minimal extrinsic high-frequency limitations due to capacitance and heating. We monitor the constant-voltage Josephson steps induced on the dc curves by an optically pumped far-infrared laser at fundamental frequencies corresponding to voltages from ∼0.2 to ∼2 times the energy-gap voltage. At all the frequencies studied, we find that the shape of the power dependence of the step amplitudes is fit reasonably well by Werthamer's frequency-dependent theory for tunnel junctions in the voltage-bias approximation. However, the observed magnitude of the steps is considerably less than predicted by the theory. By fitting to the curves of the steps, we find that some of this discrepancy can be accounted for by heating-enhanced noise rounding. The remaining discrepancies (of the order of a factor of 2) are attributed to departures from a voltage bias at low frequencies and, tentatively, to the effects of the Ginzburg-Landau relaxation time at higher voltages. Our data confirm the expected intrinsic roll off of the strength of the ac Josephson effect above the energy gap.
Keywords
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