Thermal Escape from a Metastable State in Periodically Driven Josephson Junctions

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a weak sinusoidal drive influences thermal escape in Josephson junctions, revealing resonance phenomena and initial condition effects, supported by experiments and simulations.

Contribution

It demonstrates the resonance-like behavior of thermal escape in Josephson junctions under periodic driving, combining experimental observations with numerical simulations.

Findings

Resonant activation observed at specific driving frequencies

Escape rate depends on initial conditions

Good agreement between experiments and simulations

Abstract

Resonant activation and noise-enhanced stability were observed in an underdamped real physical system, i.e., Josephson tunnel junctions. With a weak sinusoidal driving force applied, the thermal activated escape from a potential well underwent resonance-like behavior as a function of the driving frequency. The resonance also crucially depended on the initial condition of the system. Numerical simulations showed good agreement with the experimental results.