Fluctuation dominated Josephson tunneling with a scanning tunneling microscope

Phys Rev Lett. 2001 Aug 27;87(9):097004. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.097004. Epub 2001 Aug 14.

Abstract

We demonstrate Josephson tunneling in vacuum tunnel junctions formed between a superconducting scanning tunneling microscope tip and a Pb film, for junction resistances in the range 50-300 k Omega. We show that the superconducting phase dynamics is dominated by thermal fluctuations, and that the Josephson current appears as a peak centered at small finite voltage. In the presence of microwave fields ( f = 15.0 GHz) the peak decreases in magnitude and shifts to higher voltages with increasing rf power, in agreement with theory.