Thermally stabilized superconductivity and photonic “friction” in Josephson junction arrays

Superconducting resonators are technological building blocks for quantum computing, cosmology, and particle physics. Yet, despite their prevalence, in some limits they can exhibit rich and poorly understood behavior. Resonators formed from an array of Josephson junctions are a prime example. I will present two studies exploring their physics. The first study shows that apparent superconductivity persists for vastly weaker chains than expected within a zero-temperature theory. This behavior is consistent with thermal effects, which effectively melt the insulator and restore superconducting behavior. The second study explores a source of dissipation arising from photon-photon interactions - photonic “friction”. I will discuss our current efforts to characterize both decay rates and kinetics associated with this effect.

Speaker: Andrew Higginbotham, University of Chicago