Construct · 1 fields · 3 citations

Josephson effect: a standalone construct

One name. One construct. A landmark on the map.

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Josephsoneffect1 CONSTRUCTJosephson effectJOSEPHSON · SUPERCURRENT

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Condensed Matter Physics

Supercurrent tunneling across a junction between two superconductors

Brian D. Josephson's 1962 paper Possible new effects in superconductive tunnelling predicted that a supercurrent, a flow of paired electrons that carries no voltage drop, could tunnel across a thin insulating barrier separating two superconductors, a structure now called a Josephson junction. He derived two relations: a steady current flows through the barrier set only by the difference in quantum phase between the two superconductors (the direct-current effect), and holding a constant voltage across the barrier makes that current oscillate at a frequency fixed precisely by the voltage (the alternating-current effect). Anderson and Rowell reported the first probable observation of the tunneling supercurrent in 1963, and Barone and Paternò's 1982 monograph gathered the physics and applications into the standard reference. The effect is a landmark because it renders a macroscopic quantum phase as a measurable current and ties frequency to voltage through fundamental constants, which is the working basis of SQUID magnetometers and of the Josephson voltage standard used to realise the volt.[1][2][3]

Unit
A tunneling supercurrent across a junction, characterised by a critical current in amperes and a voltage-to-frequency relation in hertz per volt
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Detected as a zero-voltage supercurrent up to a critical value and as constant-voltage current steps (Shapiro steps) under microwave irradiation, read from a junction's current-voltage characteristic

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Nearby constructs

tunneling4 fields · 7 citationsjingle · one word, four constructsjunction3 fields · 3 citationsjingle · one word, three constructsbarrier4 fields · 7 citationsjingle · one word, four constructs

References

  1. Josephson, B. D. (1962). Possible new effects in superconductive tunnelling. Physics Letters, 1(7), 251–253. https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-9163(62)91369-0
  2. Anderson, P. W., & Rowell, J. M. (1963). Probable observation of the Josephson superconducting tunneling effect. Physical Review Letters, 10(6), 230–232. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.10.230
  3. Barone, A., & Paternò, G. (1982). Physics and applications of the Josephson effect. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/352760278X

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