Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Counterintuitive Consequence Of Heating In Strongly-Driven Intrinsic Junctions Of Bi₂Sr₂Cacu₂O8+Δ Mesas, Cihan Kurter, Lutfi Ozyuzer, Thomas Proslier, John F. Zasadzinski, David G. Hinks, Kenneth E. Gray

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Anomalously high and sharp peaks in the conductance of intrinsic Josephson junctions in Bi₂ Sr₂ CaCu₂ O _8+δ (Bi2212) mesas have been commonly interpreted as superconducting energy gaps but here we show they are a result of strong self-heating. This conclusion follows directly from a comparison to the equilibrium gap measured by tunneling in single break junctions on equivalent crystals. As the number of junctions in the mesa, N, and thus heating increase, the peak voltages decrease and the peak width abruptly sharpens for N≥12. Clearly these widely variable features vs N cannot all represent the equilibrium …