Measuring non-Gaussian fluctuations through incoherent cooper-pair current

Phys Rev Lett. 2004 Dec 10;93(24):247005. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.247005. Epub 2004 Dec 8.

Abstract

We study a Josephson junction (JJ) in the regime of incoherent Cooper-pair tunneling, capacitively coupled to a nonequilibrium noise source. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the JJ are sensitive to the excess voltage fluctuations in the source, and can thus be used for wideband noise detection. Under weak driving, the odd part of the I-V can be related to the second cumulant of noise, whereas the even part is due to the third cumulant. After calibration, one can measure the Fano factors for the noise source, and get information about the frequency dependence of the noise.