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Josephson plasmons

The new wave

Nature Physics volume 2, pages 503–504 (2006)Cite this article

Electromagnetic waves below the plasma frequency usually reflect off a metal. A theory now suggests that a nonlinear Josephson plasma wave — an excitation in an anisotropic superconductor — can propagate below the plasma frequency.

The Josephson effect, a strange visitor from the microscopic quantum world to our classical macroworld, has always had a particular attraction for physicists. It is at once esoteric — a manifestation of spontaneous breaking of a U(1) gauge symmetry — and down to earth, observable by simply pressing together two pieces of rusty niobium. A proposal by Savel'ev et al., on page 521 of this issue1, that electromagnetic waves interacting with Josephson currents could open an unexpected realm of nonlinear optics resonates with both aspects of the Josephson effect.

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Figure 1: Stacked in our favour.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-7300, California

    Joe Orenstein

  2. Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Joe Orenstein

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  1. Joe Orenstein
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Orenstein, J. The new wave. Nature Phys 2, 503–504 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys376

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys376

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