Linewidth of the electromagnetic radiation from Josephson junctions near cavity resonances

TL;DR

This paper investigates the intrinsic linewidth of terahertz radiation emitted by intrinsic Josephson junctions near cavity resonances, revealing how dissipation and noise influence linewidth narrowing and shape transitions.

Contribution

It is the first study to analyze the intrinsic linewidth near cavity resonances in Josephson junctions, highlighting the dominant role of dissipation in linewidth suppression.

Findings

Linewidth narrows dramatically at cavity resonance due to dissipation effects.

Line shape transitions from Lorentzian to Gaussian with frequency shift or temperature increase.

Resonant enhancement of dissipation suppresses phase diffusion, narrowing the linewidth.

Abstract

The powerful terahertz emission from intrinsic Josephson junctions in high-Tc cuprate superconductors has been detected recently. The synchronization of different junctions is enhanced by excitation of the geometrical cavity resonance. A key characteristic of the radiation is its linewidth. In this work, we study the intrinsic linewidth of the radiation near the internal cavity resonance. Surprisingly, this problem was never considered before, neither for a single Josephson junction nor for a stack of the intrinsic Josephson junctions realized in cuprate superconductors. The linewidth appears due to the slow phase diffusion, which is determined by the dissipation and amplitude of the noise. We found that both these parameters are resonantly enhanced when the cavity mode is excited but enhancement of the dissipation dominates leading to the net suppression of diffusion and dramatic narrowing of the linewidth. The line shape changes from Lorentzian to Gaussian when either the Josephson frequency is shifted away from the resonance or the temperature is increased.