
In physics, theJosephson effect is a phenomenon that occurs when twosuperconductors are placed in proximity, with some barrier or restriction between them. The effect is named after the British physicistBrian Josephson, who predicted in 1962 the mathematical relationships for the current and voltage across the weak link.[1][2] It is an example of amacroscopic quantum phenomenon, where the effects of quantum mechanics are observable at ordinary, rather than atomic, scale. The Josephson effect has many practical applications because it exhibits a precise relationship between different physical measures, such as voltage and frequency, facilitating highly accurate measurements.
The Josephson effect produces a current, known as asupercurrent, that flows continuously without any voltage applied, across a device known as aJosephson junction (JJ).[clarification needed] This consists of two or more superconductors coupled by a weak link. The weak link can be a thin insulating barrier (known as asuperconductor–insulator–superconductor junction, or S-I-S), a short section of non-superconducting metal (S-N-S), or a physical constriction that weakens the superconductivity at the point of contact (S-c-S).
Josephson junctions have important applications inquantum-mechanical circuits, such asSQUIDs,superconducting qubits, andRSFQ digital electronics. TheNIST standard for onevolt is achieved byan array of 20,208 Josephson junctions in series.[3]

The DC Josephson effect had been seen in experiments prior to 1962,[5] but had been attributed to "super-shorts" or breaches in the insulating barrier leading to the direct conduction of electrons between the superconductors.
In 1962,Brian Josephson became interested in superconducting tunneling. He was then 23 years old and a second-year graduate student ofBrian Pippard at theMond Laboratory of theUniversity of Cambridge. That year, Josephson took a many-body theory course withPhilip W. Anderson, aBell Labs employee on sabbatical leave for the 1961–1962 academic year. The course introduced Josephson to the idea of broken symmetry in superconductors, and he "was fascinated by the idea of broken symmetry, and wondered whether there could be any way of observing it experimentally". Josephson studied the experiments byIvar Giaever and Hans Meissner, and theoretical work by Robert Parmenter. Pippard initially believed that the tunneling effect was possible but that it would be too small to be noticeable, but Josephson did not agree, especially after Anderson introduced him to a preprint of "Superconductive Tunneling" byMarvin L. Cohen,Leopoldo Máximo Falicov, andJames Charles Phillips about the superconductor-barrier-normal metal system.[6][7]: 223–224
Josephson and his colleagues were initially unsure about the validity of Josephson's calculations. Anderson later remembered:
We were all—Josephson, Pippard and myself, as well as various other people who also habitually sat at the Mond tea and participated in the discussions of the next few weeks—very much puzzled by the meaning of the fact that the current depends on the phase.
After further review, they concluded that Josephson's results were valid. Josephson then submitted "Possible new effects in superconductive tunnelling" toPhysics Letters in June 1962[1]. The newer journalPhysics Letters was chosen instead of the better establishedPhysical Review Letters due to their uncertainty about the results.John Bardeen, by then already Nobel Prize winner, was initially publicly skeptical of Josephson's theory in 1962, but came to accept it after further experiments and theoretical clarifications.[7]: 222–227 See also:John Bardeen § Josephson effect controversy.
In January 1963, Anderson and hisBell Labs colleague John Rowell submitted the first paper toPhysical Review Letters to claim the experimental observation of Josephson's effect "Probable Observation of the Josephson Superconducting Tunneling Effect".[8] These authors were awarded patents[9] on the effects that were never enforced, but never challenged.[citation needed]
Before Josephson's prediction, it was only known that single (i.e., non-paired) electrons can flow through an insulating barrier, by means ofquantum tunneling. Josephson was the first to predict the tunneling of superconductingCooper pairs. For this work, Josephson received theNobel Prize in Physics in 1973.[10] Bardeen was one of the nominators.[7]: 230
John Clarke, also a student of Pippard, says his work was heavily inspired by Brian Josepshon.[11] In 1985,John Clarke's team, includingMichel Devoret andJohn M. Martinis cooled a Josephson junction below 50 mK and demonstrated itsmacroscopic quantum behaviour described by a single phase.[12] Using microwave pulses, they demonstrated that at zero bias theenergy was quantized.[12] This discovery was later used to developedsuperconducting qubits. Clarke, Devoret and Martinis were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2025 for this discovery.[12]

Types of Josephson junction include theφ Josephson junction (of whichπ Josephson junction is a special example),long Josephson junction, andsuperconducting tunnel junction. Other uses include:

The Josephson effect can be calculated using the laws of quantum mechanics. A diagram of a single Josephson junction is shown at right. Assume that superconductor A hasGinzburg–Landau order parameter, and superconductor B, which can be interpreted as thewave functions ofCooper pairs in the two superconductors. If the electric potential difference across the junction is, then the energy difference between the two superconductors is, since each Cooper pair has twice the charge of one electron. TheSchrödinger equation for thistwo-state quantum system is therefore:[18]
where the constant is a characteristic of the junction. To solve the above equation, first calculate the time derivative of the order parameter in superconductor A:
and therefore the Schrödinger equation gives:
The phase difference of Ginzburg–Landau order parameters across the junction is called theJosephson phase:
The Schrödinger equation can therefore be rewritten as:
and itscomplex conjugate equation is:
Add the two conjugate equations together to eliminate:
Since, we have:
Now, subtract the two conjugate equations to eliminate:
which gives:
Similarly, for superconductor B we can derive that:
Noting that the evolution of Josephson phase is and the time derivative ofcharge carrier density is proportional to current, when, the above solution yields theJosephson equations:[19]
(1)
(2)
where and are the voltage across and the current through the Josephson junction, and is a parameter of the junction named thecritical current. Equation (1) is called thefirst Josephson relation orweak-link current-phase relation, and equation (2) is called thesecond Josephson relation orsuperconducting phase evolution equation. The critical current of the Josephson junction depends on the properties of the superconductors, and can also be affected by environmental factors like temperature and externally applied magnetic field.
TheJosephson constant is defined as:
and its inverse is themagnetic flux quantum:
The superconducting phase evolution equation can be reexpressed as:
If we define:
then the voltage across the junction is:
which is very similar toFaraday's law of induction. But note that this voltage does not come from magnetic energy, since there isno magnetic field in the superconductors; Instead, this voltage comes from the kinetic energy of the carriers (i.e. the Cooper pairs). This phenomenon is also known askinetic inductance.
There are three main effects predicted by Josephson that follow directly from the Josephson equations:
The DC Josephson effect is a direct current crossing the insulator in the absence of any external electromagnetic field, owing totunneling. This DC Josephson current is proportional to the sine of the Josephson phase (phase difference across the insulator, which stays constant over time), and may take values between and.
With a fixed voltage across the junction, the phase will vary linearly with time and the current will be a sinusoidal AC (alternating current) with amplitude and frequency. This means a Josephson junction can act as a perfect voltage-to-frequency converter.
Microwave radiation of a single(angular) frequency can induce quantized DC voltages[20] across the Josephson junction, in which case the Josephson phase takes the form, and the voltage and current across the junction will be:
The DC components are:
This means a Josephson junction can act like a perfect frequency-to-voltage converter,[21] which is the theoretical basis for the Josephson voltage standard.
When the current and Josephson phase varies over time, the voltage drop across the junction will also vary accordingly. As shown in derivation below, the Josephson relations determine that this behavior can be modeled by akinetic inductance named Josephson inductance.[22]
Rewrite the Josephson relations as:
Now, apply thechain rule to calculate the time derivative of the current:
Rearrange the above result in the form of thecurrent–voltage characteristic of an inductor:
This gives the expression for the kinetic inductance as a function of the Josephson phase:
Here, is a characteristic parameter of the Josephson junction, named the Josephson inductance.
Note that although the kinetic behavior of the Josephson junction is similar to that of an inductor, there is no associated magnetic field. This behaviour is derived from the kinetic energy of the charge carriers, instead of the energy in a magnetic field.
Based on the similarity of the Josephson junction to a non-linear inductor, the energy stored in a Josephson junction when a supercurrent flows through it can be calculated.[23]
The supercurrent flowing through the junction is related to the Josephson phase by the current-phase relation (CPR):
The superconducting phase evolution equation is analogous toFaraday's law:
Assume that at time, the Josephson phase is; At a later time, the Josephson phase evolved to. The energy increase in the junction is equal to the work done on the junction:
This shows that the change of energy in the Josephson junction depends only on the initial and final state of the junction and not thepath. Therefore, the energy stored in a Josephson junction is astate function, which can be defined as:
Here is a characteristic parameter of the Josephson junction, named the Josephson energy. It is related to the Josephson inductance by. An alternative but equivalent definition is also often used.
Again, note that a non-linearmagnetic coil inductor accumulatespotential energy in its magnetic field when a current passes through it; However, in the case of Josephson junction, no magnetic field is created by a supercurrent — the stored energy comes from the kinetic energy of the charge carriers instead.
The resistively capacitance shunted junction (RCSJ) model,[24][25] or simply shunted junction model, includes the effect of AC impedance of an actual Josephson junction on top of the two basic Josephson relations stated above.
As perThévenin's theorem,[26] the AC impedance of the junction can be represented by a capacitor and a shunt resistor, both parallel[27] to the ideal Josephson Junction. The complete expression for the current drive becomes:
where the first term is displacement current with – effective capacitance, and the third is normal current with – effective resistance of the junction.
The Josephson penetration depth characterizes the typical length on which an externally appliedmagnetic field penetrates into thelong Josephson junction. It is usually denoted as and is given by the following expression (in SI):
where is the magnetic flux quantum, is thecritical supercurrent density (A/m2), and characterizes the inductance of the superconducting electrodes[28]
where is the thickness of the Josephson barrier (usually insulator), and are the thicknesses of superconducting electrodes, and and are theirLondon penetration depths. The Josephson penetration depth usually ranges from a fewμm to several mm if the critical current density is very low.[29]