50 research outputs found
Soliton ratchets
The mechanism underlying the soliton ratchet, both in absence and in presence
of noise, is investigated. We show the existence of an asymmetric internal mode
on the soliton profile which couples, trough the damping in the system, to the
soliton translational mode. Effective soliton transport is achieved when the
internal mode and the external force are phase locked. We use as working model
a generalized double sine-Gordon equation. The phenomenon is expected to be
valid for generic soliton systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Depinning of kinks in a Josephson-junction ratchet array
We have measured the depinning of trapped kinks in a ratchet potential using
a fabricated circular array of Josephson junctions. Our ratchet system consists
of a parallel array of junctions with alternating cell inductances and
junctions areas. We have compared this ratchet array with other circular
arrays. We find experimentally and numerically that the depinning current
depends on the direction of the applied current in our ratchet ring. We also
find other properties of the depinning current versus applied field, such as a
long period and a lack of reflection symmetry, which we can explain
analytically.Comment: to be published in PR
Discrete breathers in nonlinear lattices: Experimental detection in a Josephson array
We present an experimental study of discrete breathers in an underdamped
Josephson-junction array. Breathers exist under a range of dc current biases
and temperatures, and are detected by measuring dc voltages. We find the
maximum allowable bias current for the breather is proportional to the array
depinning current while the minimum current seems to be related to a junction
retrapping mechanism. We have observed that this latter instability leads to
the formation of multi-site breather states in the array. We have also studied
the domain of existence of the breather at different values of the array
parameters by varying the temperature.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Physical Revie
Experimental Critical Current Patterns in Josephson Junction Ladders
We present an experimental and theoretical study of the magnetic field
dependence of the critical current of Josephson junction ladders. At variance
with the well-known case of a one-dimensional (1D) parallel array of Josephson
junctions the magnetic field patterns display a single minimum even for very
low values of the self-inductance parameter . Experiments
performed changing both the geometrical value of the inductance and the
critical current of the junctions show a good agreement with numerical
simulations. We argue that the observed magnetic field patterns are due to a
peculiar mapping between the isotropic Josephson ladder and the 1D parallel
array with the self-inductance parameter .Comment: 4 pages, 4 picture
Soliton ratchets induced by ac forces with harmonic mixing
The ratchet dynamics of a kink (topological soliton) of a dissipative
sine-Gordon equation in the presence of ac forces with harmonic mixing (at
least bi-harmonic) of zero mean is studied. The dependence of the kink mean
velocity on system parameters is investigated numerically and the results are
compared with a perturbation analysis based on a point particle representation
of the soliton. We find that first order perturbative calculations lead to
incomplete descriptions, due to the important role played by the soliton-phonon
interaction in establishing the phenomenon. The role played by the temporal
symmetry of the system in establishing soliton ratchets is also emphasized. In
particular, we show the existence of an asymmetric internal mode on the kink
profile which couples to the kink translational mode through the damping in the
system. Effective soliton transport is achieved when the internal mode and the
external force get phase locked. We find that for kinks driven by bi-harmonic
drivers consisting of the superposition of a fundamental driver with its first
odd harmonic, the transport arises only due to this {\it internal mode}
mechanism, while for bi-harmonic drivers with even harmonic superposition, also
a point-particle contribution to the drift velocity is present. The phenomenon
is robust enough to survive the presence of thermal noise in the system and can
lead to several interesting physical applications.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figure
Discrete breathers in dissipative lattices
We study the properties of discrete breathers, also known as intrinsic
localized modes, in the one-dimensional Frenkel-Kontorova lattice of
oscillators subject to damping and external force. The system is studied in the
whole range of values of the coupling parameter, from C=0 (uncoupled limit) up
to values close to the continuum limit (forced and damped sine-Gordon model).
As this parameter is varied, the existence of different bifurcations is
investigated numerically. Using Floquet spectral analysis, we give a complete
characterization of the most relevant bifurcations, and we find (spatial)
symmetry-breaking bifurcations which are linked to breather mobility, just as
it was found in Hamiltonian systems by other authors. In this way moving
breathers are shown to exist even at remarkably high levels of discreteness. We
study mobile breathers and characterize them in terms of the phonon radiation
they emit, which explains successfully the way in which they interact. For
instance, it is possible to form ``bound states'' of moving breathers, through
the interaction of their phonon tails. Over all, both stationary and moving
breathers are found to be generic localized states over large values of ,
and they are shown to be robust against low temperature fluctuations.Comment: To be published in Physical Review
Superconducting and Quantum-Effect Devices
Contains reports on six research projects and a list of publications.National Science Foundation Grant DMR 94-02020National Science Foundation Fellowship MIP 88-58764U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Grant F30602-96-1-0059 Rome LaboratoryDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency/Consortium for Superconducting Electronics Contract MDA 972-90-C-002