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Measurement of the effect of quantum phase slips in a Josephson junction chain

Nature Physics volume 6, pages 589–592 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

The interplay between superconductivity and Coulomb interactions has been studied for more than 20 years now1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13. In low-dimensional systems, superconductivity degrades in the presence of Coulomb repulsion: interactions tend to suppress fluctuations of charge, thereby increasing fluctuations of phase. This can lead to the occurrence of a superconducting–insulator transition, as has been observed in thin superconducting films5,6, wires7 and also in Josephson junction arrays4,9,11,12,13. The last of these are very attractive systems, as they enable a relatively easy control of the relevant energies involved in the competition between superconductivity and Coulomb interactions. Josephson junction chains have been successfully used to create particular electromagnetic environments for the reduction of charge fluctuations14,15,16. Recently, they have attracted interest as they could provide the basis for the realization of a new type of topologically protected qubit17,18 or for the implementation of a new current standard19. Here we present quantitative measurements of quantum phase slips in the ground state of a Josephson junction chain. We tune in situ the strength of quantum phase fluctuations and obtain an excellent agreement with the tight-binding model initially proposed by Matveev and colleagues8.

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Figure 1: Graphic representations describing the effect of phase slips in a six-junction chain, the resulting chain’s energy and supercurrent and the measurement principle.
Figure 2: Measurement circuit.
Figure 3: Measured switching current (black diamonds) as a function of φC over the chain for three different EJ/EC ratios.
Figure 4: Comparison between the measured and the calculated switching-current amplitude as a function of the EJ/EC ratio.

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Acknowledgements

We thank B. Douçot, D. Estève, F. Hekking, L. Ioffe and G. Rastelli for fruitful discussions. We are grateful to the team of the Nanofab facility in Grenoble for their technical support in the sample fabrication. Our research is supported by the European STREP MIDAS and the French ANR ‘QUANTJO’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Néel, C.N.R.S. and Université Joseph Fourier, BP 166, 38042 Grenoble-cedex 9, France

    I. M. Pop, F. Lecocq, Z. Peng, B. Pannetier, O. Buisson & W. Guichard

  2. L. D. Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kosygin street 2, Moscow 119334, Russia

    I. Protopopov

  3. Institut fuer Nanotechnologie, Karlsruher Institut fuer Technologie, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany

    I. Protopopov

Authors
  1. I. M. Pop
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  2. I. Protopopov
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  3. F. Lecocq
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  4. Z. Peng
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  5. B. Pannetier
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Contributions

I.M.P. fabricated the sample and carried out the experiments. I.M.P., B.P., O.B. and W.G. designed the experiment, analysed the data and wrote the paper. I.M.P. and I.P. carried out the numerical calculations. Z.P. and F.L. contributed to the carrying out of experiments and sample fabrication. W.G. supervised the project. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript at all stages.

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Correspondence to W. Guichard.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Pop, I., Protopopov, I., Lecocq, F. et al. Measurement of the effect of quantum phase slips in a Josephson junction chain. Nature Phys 6, 589–592 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1697

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