Solitonic thermal transport in a current biased long Josephson junction

TL;DR

This paper explores how a drifting Josephson vortex, or soliton, in a long Josephson junction can control thermal transport, with effects influenced by bias current, damping, and material properties, revealing potential for thermal management.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of controlling thermal transport via a soliton's velocity in a long Josephson junction, highlighting the impact of damping and material choice on thermal effects.

Findings

Thermal transport is tunable by the bias current controlling soliton velocity.

Soliton-induced thermal effects become significant as the soliton approaches the Swihart velocity.

Fast thermal effects require superconductors with short quasiparticle relaxation times.

Abstract

We investigate the coherent energy and thermal transport in a temperature-biased long Josephson tunnel junction, when a Josephson vortex, i.e., a soliton, steadily drifts driven by an electric bias current. We demonstrate that thermal transport through the junction can be controlled by the bias current, since it determines the steady-state velocity of the drifting soliton. We study the effects on thermal transport of the damping affecting the soliton dynamics. In fact, a soliton locally influences the power flowing through the junction and can cause the variation of the temperature of the device. When the soliton speed increases approaching its limiting value, i.e., the Swihart velocity, we demonstrate that the soliton-induces thermal effects significantly modify. Finally, we discuss how the appropriate material selection of the superconductors forming the junction is essential, since short quasiparticle relaxation times are required to observe fast thermal effects.