Phase-dependent damping rate of Josephson plasmons in the nonequilibrium steady state

Abstract

We calculate the damping rate of Josephson plasmons due to thermally excited quasiparticles in a nonequilibrium steady state. It is known that the experimentally observed dependence of the damping rate on the phase difference behaves in the opposite way to that of theory. It is shown that this problem can be solved by calculating the damping rate by incorporating changes in the electronic state at the resonant frequency. When the phase difference is large, the broadening of the one-particle state is large due to the presence of a dc current and brings about the effective thermalization, so that the nonequilibrium correction becomes small. Conversely, when the phase difference is small, the nonequilibrium correction becomes large and causes a smaller damping rate due to a reduction in the effective temperature. This dependence of the nonequilibrium correction on the phase difference results in a damping rate that is consistent with experimental results.