Dissipation and quantum phase transitions of a pair of Josephson junctions

Abstract

A model system consisting of a mesoscopic superconducting grain coupled by Josephson junctions to two macroscopic superconducting electrodes is studied. We focus on the effects of Ohmic dissipation caused by resistive shunts and superconducting-normal charge relaxation within the grain. As the temperature is lowered, the behavior crosses over from uncoupled Josephson junctions, similar to situations analyzed previously, to strongly interacting junctions. The crossover temperature is related to the energy-level spacing of the grain and is of the order of the inverse escape time from the grain. In the limit of zero temperature, the two-junction system exhibits five distinct quantum phases, including a novel superconducting state with localized Cooper pairs on the grain but phase coherence between the leads due to Cooper pair cotunneling processes. In contrast to a single junction, the transition from the fully superconducting to fully normal phases is found to be controlled by an intermediate-coupling fixed point whose critical exponents vary continuously as the resistances are changed. The model is analyzed via two-component sine-Gordon models and related Coulomb gases that provide effective low-temperature descriptions in both the weak and strong Josephson coupling limits. The complicated phase diagram is consistent with symmetries of the two component sine-Gordon models, which include weak- to strong-coupling duality and permutation triality. Experimental consequences of the results and potential implications for superconductor to normal transitions in thin wires and films are discussed briefly.