Intrinsic Josephson effect and nonequilibrium soliton structures in two-gap superconductors

TL;DR

This paper predicts a new dynamic state in multicomponent superconductors involving soliton structures and voltage oscillations, triggered by high current densities and nonequilibrium quasiparticle effects.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of interband breakdown and soliton phase textures in two-gap superconductors under high current conditions, proposing experimental observation methods.

Findings

Prediction of static and dynamic soliton phase textures.

Identification of voltage oscillations akin to the nonstationary Josephson effect.

Proposal of experiments to observe multicomponent order parameter effects.

Abstract

We predict a new dynamic state in current-carrying superconductors with multicomponent order parameter. If the current density J exceeds a critical value J_t, an interband breakdown caused by charge imbalance of nonequilibrium quasiparticles occurs. For J > J_t, the electric field penetrating from current leads gives rise to various static and dynamic soliton phase textures, and voltage oscillations similar to the nonstationary Josephson effect. We propose experiments to observe these effects which would probe the multicomponent nature of the superconducting order parameter.