A superconductor-insulator transition in a one-dimensional array of Josephson junctions

Abstract

We consider a one-dimensional Josephson junction array, in the regime where the junction charging energy is much greater than the charging energy of the superconducting islands. In this regime we critically reexamine the continuum limit description and establish the relationship between parameters of the array and the ones of the resulting sine-Gordon model. The later model is formulated in terms of quasi-charge. We argue that despite arguments to the contrary in the literature, such quasi-charge sine-Gordon description remains valid in the vicinity of the phase transition between the insulating and the superconducting phases. We also discuss the effects of random background charges, which are always present in experimental realizations of such arrays.

References in corpus (2)

• Some generic aspects of bosonic excitations in disordered systems
• Low-frequency dynamics of disordered XY spin chains and pinned density waves: from localized spin waves to soliton tunneling

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Insulating Josephson-junction chains as pinned Luttinger liquids
• Superconductor-to-Metal Transitions in Dissipative Chains of Mesoscopic Grains and Nanowires
• One-dimensional Josephson junction arrays: Lifting the Coulomb blockade by depinning
• Microwave spectroscopy of a weakly-pinned charge density wave in a superinductor
• Superconductor-insulator transition in Josephson junction chains by quantum Monte-Carlo
• Charge solitons and their dynamical mass in 1-D arrays of Josephson junctions
• Thermally activated conductance in arrays of small Josephson junctions
• Charge quantization and detector resolution
• Transmission of waves through a pinned elastic medium