Experimental implications of intrinsic quasiparticle mechanisms of dissipation in the switching dynamics of Josephson devices

The decay of the zero-voltage state is studied, including quasi-particle tunneling and the interference cos phi term in the equivalent circuit model. As a result of the approach used, the effective resistance for describing the junction dissipation, which was an arbitrary parameter in the resistively shunted junction (RSJ) model, can now be obtained in terms of the measurable junction parameters and bias conditions. This allows a direct comparison of data with theory. The very good agreement between data and theory confirms the essential correctness of the authors´ assumptions. The data also provide an excellent experimental test of the thermal activation theory in underdamped physical systems.<>