Enhanced Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling in Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_{8+\delta }$ Intrinsic Josephson Junction Stacks

Abstract

We have investigated macroscopic quantum tunneling in Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_{8+\delta }$ intrinsic Josephson junctions at millikelvin temperatures using microwave irradiation. Measurements show that the escape rate for uniformly switching stacks of N junctions is about $N^2$ times higher than that of a single junction having the same plasma frequency. We argue that this gigantic enhancement of macroscopic quantum tunneling rate in stacks is boosted by current fluctuations which occur in the series array of junctions loaded by the impedance of the environment.

4 pages and 5 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Macroscopic quantum tunneling in a d-wave high-Tc superconductor
• Decoherence due to nodal quasiparticles in d-wave qubits

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Switching Dynamics of Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_{8+\delta }$ Intrinsic Josephson junctions: Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling and Self-Heating Effect
• Comparative study of macroscopic quantum tunneling in Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_y intrinsic Josephson junctions with different device structures
• Theory of Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling in High-T_c c-Axis Josephson Junctions
• Switching current distributions and subgap structures of underdoped (Hg,Re)Ba2Ca2Cu3O8+d intrinsic Josephson junctions
• Driven Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling of Ultracold Atoms in Engineered Optical Lattices
• Macroscopic quantum tunneling in "small" Josephson junctions in magnetic field
• Quantum electrodynamics and photon-assisted tunnelling in long Josephson junctions
• Possible observation of energy level quantization in an intrinsic Josephson junction
• Superconducting charge qubits from a microscopic many-body perspective
• Theory for Photon-Assisted Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling in a Stack of Intrinsic Josephson Junctions
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