Mutual synchronization of two stacks of intrinsic Josephson junctions in cuprate superconductors

Certain high-T-c cuprate superconductors, which naturally realize a stack of Josephson junctions, thus can be used to generate electromagnetic waves in the terahertz region. A plate-like single crystal with 10(4) junctions without cavity resonance was proposed to achieve strong radiation. For this purpose, it is required to synchronize the Josephson plasma oscillation in all junctions. In this work, we propose to use two stacks of junctions shunted in parallel to achieve synchronization. The two stacks are mutually synchronized in the whole IV curve, and there is a phase shift between the plasma oscillation in the two stacks. The phase shift is nonzero when the number of junctions in different stacks is the same, while it can be arbitrary when the number of junctions is different. This phase shift can be tuned continuously by applying a magnetic field when all the junctions are connected by superconducting wires. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.