Disorder and Critical Current Variability in Josephson Junctions

TL;DR

This paper theoretically analyzes how different types of disorder, such as vacancies, thickness variations, and pinholes, affect the critical current variability in Nb/Al-AlO$_x$/Nb Josephson junctions, using self-consistent microscopic calculations.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed theoretical model considering multiple disorder sources to explain critical current variability in Josephson junctions.

Findings

Vacancies significantly suppress critical current.

Thickness variations induce similar suppression effects.

Pinholes cause anomalous behavior between tunnel and SNS junctions.

Abstract

We investigate theoretically the origins of observed variations in the critical currents of Nb/Al-AlO$_x$/Nb Josephson junctions in terms of various types of disorder. We consider the following disorder sources: vacancies within the Al layer; thickness variations in the AlO$_x$ layer; and "pinholes" (i.e., point contacts) within the AlO$_x$ layer. The calculations are all performed by solving the microscopic Bogoliubov-de Gennes Hamiltonian self-consistently. It is found that a small concentration of vacancies within the Al layer is sufficient to suppress the critical current, while the presence of a small number of thick regions of the oxide layer induces a similar effect as well. The pinhole scenario is found to result in anomalous behavior that resembles neither that of a pure tunnel junction nor that of an SNS junction, but a regime that interpolates between these two limits. We comment on the degree to which each of the three scenarios describes the actual situation present in these junctions.