An Analysis of Heat Transfer in Josephson Junction Devices

Josephson junctions are electronic devices made from superconducting materials that cycle between resistive and nonresistive states. Heat generated in the resistive state causes a temperature rise, which may adversely affect electrical behavior, by reducing the critical Josephson current. In this work, temperature distributions and resulting reductions in critical current are calculated for Josephson junctions made from low and high-temperature superconductors. It is found that an unacceptable reduction in critical current may occur for junctions made from high-temperature materials. This problem can almost certainly be overcome, but perhaps at the expense of one advantage of Josephson junctions, namely compactness.