Nonlinear nonequilibrium quasiparticle relaxation in Josephson junctions

TL;DR

This paper numerically analyzes nonlinear nonequilibrium quasiparticle relaxation in Josephson junctions, revealing new effects like enhanced boson emission, a radiative state acting as a superconducting cascade laser, and implications for THz radiation.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive numerical solution to nonlinear kinetic equations in Josephson junctions, uncovering novel nonlinear phenomena and potential THz laser applications.

Findings

Overlap of nonequilibrium bosonic bands at even-gap voltages enhances boson emission.

Discovery of a radiative state with stimulated quasiparticle relaxation.

Potential for high-efficiency THz superconducting cascade laser.

Abstract

Nonequilibrium electrons in superconductors relax and eventually recombine into Cooper pairs. Relaxation is facilitated by electron-boson interaction and is accompanied by emission of nonequilibrium bosons. Here I solve numerically a full set of nonlinear kinetic balance equations for stacked Josephson junctions, which allows analysis of strongly nonequilibrium phenomena. It is shown that nonlinearity becomes significant already at very small disequilibrium. The following new, essentially nonlinear effects are obtained: (i) At even-gap voltages $V=2n \Delta/e$ $(n=2,3,...)$ nonequilibrium bosonic bands overlap. This leads to enhanced emission of $\Omega = 2 \Delta$ bosons and to appearance of dips in tunnel conductance. (ii) A new type of radiative solution is found at strong disequilibrium. It is characterized by the fast stimulated relaxation of nonequilibrium quasiparticles. A stack in this state behaves as a light emitting diode and directly converts electric power to boson emission, without utilization of the ac-Josephson effect. This leads to very high radiation efficacy and to significant radiative cooling of the stack. The phenomenon can be used for realization of a new type of superconducting cascade laser in the THz frequency range.