Pulse-induced switches in a Josephson tunnel stacked device

Pulse-activated transitions from the metastable to the running state and vi ce versa have been observed in a stacked double tunnel Nb-based Josephson s ystem. Experimental results are compared with numerical simulations based o n the Sine-Gordon model of the stacked junctions by injecting pulses with v ariable amplitude in one of the junctions of the stack, and observing the v oltage response of the other junction. Both experimental and numerical resu lts show the possibility to induce both direct and back-switching transitio ns from the metastable to the running state simply by changing the amplitud e of the electronic pulses injected across the stack device. (C) 2001 Ameri can Institute of Physics.