Subharmonic Shapiro steps and noise in high-Tc superconductor Josephson junctions

An experimental investigation is made of the subharmonic Shapiro steps observed on the I-V curves of high-T-c superconductor Josephson junctions and on the bias-voltage dependences of the rf noise and detector response when the junctions are subjected to external submillimeter radiation. Structures of this type are ordinarily described by a nonsinusoidal current-phase relation, which is why subharmonic steps appear. Numerical modeling of the processes occurring in a Josephson junction by means of a simple current-phase relation, as in the case of an SNS junction, gives good agreement with experiment. The width of the characteristic Josephson generation line of the junction was estimated on the basis of the noise dependences and the selective detector response. The width can be explained by taking into account the shot noise of the tunneling component of the conductivity. A model of the conductivity of a high-T-c superconductor Josephson junction, consisting of a tunnel junction with microshorts possessing metallic conductivity, is discussed. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-3640(98)01417-0].