Microwave-Induced Steps Observed in Bi-2212 Intrinsic Josephson Junctions

Abstract

Microwave-induced steps observed in the I-V characteristics of Bi-2212 intrinsic Josephson junctions are investigated and the mechanism producing the zero-crossing steps is discussed. It is found that (1) a junction area smaller than 40 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ shows uniform in-plane distribution of the c-axis dc current and (2) the zero-crossing steps are observed in the uniform distribution. The observation of steps in samples of different sizes under the uniform current condition indicates that the observed steps are produced by the inverse ac Josephson effect.