Signatures of superconducting Higgs mode in irradiated Josephson junctions

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Lahiri, Aritra, Cuevas, Juan Carlos, Trauzettel, Björn
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Lahiri, Aritra
Cuevas, Juan Carlos
Trauzettel, Björn
author_facet Lahiri, Aritra
Cuevas, Juan Carlos
Trauzettel, Björn
contents The Higgs mode, originally proposed in the context of superconductivity, corresponds to oscillations of the amplitude of the superconducting order parameter. Recent THz-domain optical studies have found signatures consistent with the Higgs mode, but its unambiguous detection is still challenging. We predict that the existence of the Higgs mode can be unambiguously revealed by standard measurements of the transport characteristics in microwave-irradiated asymmetric and transparent Josephson junctions. One signature of the Higgs mode in a Josephson junction is the microwave-induced enhancement of the second harmonic of the equilibrium current-phase relation (at zero DC bias voltage), whose sign differs from its expected value in the absence of the Higgs mode. As the radiation frequency is varied, this enhancement exhibits resonant behavior when the microwave frequency is tuned across the Higgs mass. The second signature that we propose is the enhancement of the second harmonic of the AC Josephson current at finite DC voltage bias, which can be probed in a customary analysis of the Shapiro steps in a microwave-irradiated junction.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_05730
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Signatures of superconducting Higgs mode in irradiated Josephson junctions
Lahiri, Aritra
Cuevas, Juan Carlos
Trauzettel, Björn
Superconductivity
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
The Higgs mode, originally proposed in the context of superconductivity, corresponds to oscillations of the amplitude of the superconducting order parameter. Recent THz-domain optical studies have found signatures consistent with the Higgs mode, but its unambiguous detection is still challenging. We predict that the existence of the Higgs mode can be unambiguously revealed by standard measurements of the transport characteristics in microwave-irradiated asymmetric and transparent Josephson junctions. One signature of the Higgs mode in a Josephson junction is the microwave-induced enhancement of the second harmonic of the equilibrium current-phase relation (at zero DC bias voltage), whose sign differs from its expected value in the absence of the Higgs mode. As the radiation frequency is varied, this enhancement exhibits resonant behavior when the microwave frequency is tuned across the Higgs mass. The second signature that we propose is the enhancement of the second harmonic of the AC Josephson current at finite DC voltage bias, which can be probed in a customary analysis of the Shapiro steps in a microwave-irradiated junction.
title Signatures of superconducting Higgs mode in irradiated Josephson junctions
topic Superconductivity
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.05730