Intrinsic Josephson effect and nonequilibrium soliton structures in two-gap superconductors

Abstract

We predict a new dynamic state in current-carrying superconductors with multicomponent order parameter. If the current density J exceeds a critical value J_t, an interband breakdown caused by charge imbalance of nonequilibrium quasiparticles occurs. For J > J_t, the electric field penetrating from current leads gives rise to various static and dynamic soliton phase textures, and voltage oscillations similar to the nonstationary Josephson effect. We propose experiments to observe these effects which would probe the multicomponent nature of the superconducting order parameter.