English

Supercurrent noise in quantum point contacts

Condensed Matter 2009-10-28 v1

Abstract

Spectral density of current fluctuations in a short ballistic superconducting quantum point contact is calculated for arbitrary bias voltages VV. Contrary to a common opinion that the supercurrent flow in Josephson junctions is coherent process with no fluctuations, we find extremely large current noise that is {\em caused} by the supercurrent coherence. An unusual feature of the noise, besides its magnitude, is its voltage dependence: the noise decreases with increasing VV, despite the fact that the dc current grows steadily with VV. At finite voltages the noise can be qualitatively understood as the shot noise of the large charge quanta of magnitude 2Δ/V2\Delta /V equal to the charge transferred during one period of Josephson oscillations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9511128,
  title  = {Supercurrent noise in quantum point contacts},
  author = {D. Averin and H. Imam},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9511128},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

12 pages, revtex, 2 figures by fax/conventional mail upon request