Abstract
Direct measurements of the lifetime of the zero-voltage state in a Josephson junction, operating at a temperature where the quantum contribution is comparable with the thermal escape, have been performed as a function of the bias current [1]. From these measurements the traversal time of the barrier can be deduced according to a semiclassical analysis, analogously to what was previously done by measuring the dependence of the lifetime on the load of the junction [2]. The semiclassical traversal time, which turns out to be on the order of 100 ps, is presumably only the imaginary part of a complex quantity whose real part remains unknown (and is also not accessible to direct measurement). An estimate of this quantity can be done along the lines of a theoretical model which considers tunneling to be a stochastic process, and the real part of the traversal time turns out to be on the order of a few picoseconds. The connection with the Zeno time is also considered.
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Fabeni, P., Mugnai, D., Pazzi, G.P. et al. Traversal Time in Josephson Junctions. Journal of Superconductivity 12, 829–833 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007753514180
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007753514180