Tunneling between superconductor-insulator-superconductor junctions under microwave irradiation

Abstract

The effect of microwave irradiation on the tunneling current of superconductor-insulator-superconductor ($S-I-S$) junctions has been studied. It is found that the longitudinal electric field gives rise to an important contribution to the tunneling current in the case of high-resistance junctions. The contribution due to redistribution of quasiparticles is important in the case of low-resistance junctions. A crossover between the two behaviors is estimated for aluminum $S-I-S$ junctions at oxide thickness on the order of 50 Å.