Phase-Charge Duality of a Josephson junction in a fluctuating electromagnetic environment

Abstract

We have measured the current-voltage characteristics of a single Josephson junction placed in a high impedance environment. The transfer of Cooper pairs through the junction is governed by overdamped quasicharge dynamics, leading to Coulomb blockade and Bloch oscillations. Exact duality exists to the standard overdamped phase dynamics of a Josephson junction, resulting in a dual shape of the current-voltage characteristic, with current and voltage changing roles. We demonstrate this duality with experiments which allow for a quantitative comparison with a theory that includes the effect of fluctuations due to finite temperature of the electromagnetic environment.