Eur. Phys. J.

B (2020) 93: 143

https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2020-10125-3 THE EUROPEAN
PHYSICAL JOURNAL B
Regular Article

Analysis of Josephson junction with topologically nontrivial

barrier
Sifeu Takougang Kingni 1,a , André Cheukem 2 , André Cheage Chamgoué 3 , and Fulbert Togue Kamga 4
1
Department of Mechanical, Petroleum and Gas Engineering, Faculty of Mines and Petroleum Industries, University
of Maroua, P.O. Box 46, Maroua, Cameroon
2
Research Unit of Automation and Applied Computer, Electrical Engineering Department of IUT-FV,
University of Dschang, P.O. Box 134, Bandjoun, Cameroon
3
Department of Basic Science, School of Geology and Mining Engineering, University of Ngaoundere, P.O. Box 115,
Meiganga, Cameroon
4
Institute of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences at Yabassi, University of Douala, Box 2701 Douala, Cameroon

Received 10 March 2020 / Received in final form 16 April 2020

Published online 3 August 2020
c EDP Sciences / Società Italiana di Fisica / Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature,
2020

Abstract. Josephson junction (JJ) with topologically nontrivial barrier is analytically and numerically
analyzed in this paper. This system has four, two, or no equilibrium points depending on the external
direct current (DC) source and the fractional parameter. The existence of pitchfork bifurcation is established
during the stability analysis of the equilibrium points. The inclusion of fractional parameter in JJ leads
to an increase in the hysteresis loop of current-voltage characteristics. For a suitable choice of modulation
parameters of external current source, JJ with topologically nontrivial barrier can display excitable mode,
bistable, periodic and chaotic behaviors.

1 Introduction current-phase relation includes an additional fractional

Quantum tunneling effect is a quantum phenomenon
which occurs when particles pass through a potential bar-
rier that according to the theories of classical physics
should be impossible to move through. The barrier may
be a physically impassable medium such as an insula-
tor or a vacuum or a region of high potential energy.
Quantum tunneling plays an essential role in several phys-
ical phenomena such as the nuclear fusion that occurs
in main sequence stars like the sun [1]. Quantum tunnel-
ing in JJ has been the subject of great interests because
of its possible technological applications in phase qubit
[2,3], superconducting electronic devices [4–6], ultrahigh
sensitive detectors, parametric amplifiers, voltage stan-
dards and super-conducting quantum interference devices
for the detection of very weak magnetic fields [6,7].
It is well known in the literature that JJs based on
low-critical temperature superconductors have a harmonic
(sinusoidal) current-phase relation [8,9]. While JJs based
on high critical-temperature superconductors [10] have an
unharmonic (non-sinusoidal) current-phase relation due
to the anisotropic and multiband effects in superconduc-
tors. There are some works in the literature devoted to
the analytical and numerical analysis of JJs with unhar-
monic current-phase relation [11–17]. In the case of JJs
based on topologically nontrivial barriers [18–21], the
a C
e-mail: stkingni@gmail.com
term related to the Majorana particles [22–24]. Majorana
particles are particles identical to their antiparticles which
are described by real value wave functions. The Majo-
rana particles are attracting considerable interest because
of their importance for quantum computations [25]. Only
few studies have been published on the dynamical anal-
ysis of JJs with Majorana bound states [26–28]. To the
best of the authors knowledge, there is no work in the
literature on the analytical and numerical analysis of JJ
with topologically nontrivial barrier. So, this work deals
with the analytical and numerical analysis of JJ with
topologically nontrivial barrier described by the linear
resistive-capacitive shunted junction model.
This paper is organized as follows. The next section
presents the rate-equations and theoretical analysis of JJ
with topologically nontrivial barrier. The conclusion of the
paper is drawn in Section 3.
2 Rate-equations and theoretical analysis
of JJ with topologically nontrivial barrier
A JJ with topologically nontrivial barrier can be
described by a linear resistive-capacitive shunted junction
model [29,30]:
h d2 φ h dφ 0
+ + IJ = I(t ), (1)
4πe dt0 2 4πRe dt0
Page 2 of 5 Eur. Phys. J. B (2020) 93: 143

Fig. 1. (a) Repartition of equilibrium points of system (4)
in the parameter space spanned m and idc and (b) stability
diagram of equilibrium points E = (φ∗ , 0) versus the parameter
idc for specific value of fractional parameter m = 0.34. In panel
(b), solid black lines indicate stable branches and grey lines
represent unstable branches.
Fig. 2. The global maxima of the voltage V versus DC i(t) =
idc for specific value of parameter m: (a) m = 0, (b) m = 0.3,
(c) m = 0.6 and (d) m = 0.9. Current-voltage curve is obtained
for both increasing (black line) and decreasing (red line) the
direct current i(t) = idc . The other parameters are βc = 25,
im = 0 and ωm = 0.

where h is the Planck constant, e is the charge of the

electron, C and R are capacitor and resistor of JJ, respec-
tively. By applying an external source current I (t0 ) across
JJ, a voltage

h dφ
V= (2)
2πe dt0
is developed across JJ and the nonlinear relation between
the current

IJ = IJC [sin (φ) + m sin (φ/2)] (3)

where φ = φ2 − φ1 is the phase difference across two

superconductors and IJC is the junction critical current.
The fractional parameter m(m ≥ 0) represents the con-
tribution of 2π − periodic Josephson current for m = 0 Fig. 3. Two parameters LLE diagrams in (0 ≤ ω ≤ 0.05, 0 ≤
or 2π − periodic Josephson current and 4π − periodic im ≤ 2) space for specific value of idc : (a) idc = 0.05 and (b)
Josephson current for 0 < m ≤ 1. The current phase rela- idc = 0.3. The others parameters are m = 0 and βc = 25.
tion of equation (3) cannot take into account only periodic
4π − Josephson current. Therefore, it is a special case of
the current-phase relation used in reference [20]. Introduc-
ing the following terms ω0 = (4πeIJC /hC)1/2 , t = ω0 t0 When the external current source is a DC: i(t) = idc , the
and i(t) = I(t0 )/ICJ , equation (1) can be rewritten in equilibrium points E(φ∗ , V ∗ ) of system (4) are obtained
dimensionless form: by solving:

dφ
= V, (4a) V ∗ = 0, (5a)
dt
dV idc − sin (φ ) − m sin (φ∗ /2) = 0.
∗
(5b)
1
= βC [i (t) − V − sin (φ) − m sin (φ/2)] , (4b)
dt
The Newton-Raphson method is used to find the value
where βc = 4πeR2 CIJC /h > 0 corresponds to the capac- of φ∗ in equation (5b). Equation (5b) presents no roots
itance of the junction and i(t) = idc + im sin(ωt). The or two or four roots depending on the value of param-
parameters idc , im and ω are DC, modulation current and eters (idc , m) as shown in Figure 1a. The characteristic
modulation frequency. equation of system (4) evaluated at the equilibrium point
Eur. Phys. J. B (2020) 93: 143
Fig. 4. Two parameters LLE diagrams in (0 ≤ ω ≤ 0.05, 0 ≤ im ≤ 2) space for specific value of fractional parameter m: (a)
m = 0.34 and (b) m = 0.9. The others parameters are idc = 0.3 and βc = 25.
E = (φ∗ , 0) is:
1 h m i
λ2 + λ + cos (φ∗ ) + cos (φ∗ /2) /βc = 0. (6)
βc 2
According to the Routh-Hurwitz criterion, the real
parts of all the roots λ of equation (6) are negative if
and only if
m current: i(t) = idc + im sin(ωt). The largest Lyapunov
cos (φ∗ ) + cos (φ∗ /2) > 0, (7)
2 exponents (LLE) diagrams versus the two-parameters
because βc > 0. Therefore, the stability of equilibrium
points E = (φ∗ , 0) depends on the parameters m and idc .
The stability analysis of equilibrium points E = (φ∗ , 0) as
function of the parameter idc is depicted in Figure 1b.
Figure 1a reveals that system (4) can have four or two
or no equilibrium points. In Figure 1b for idc ≤ 0.765, sys-
tem (4) has four equilibrium points where two are stable
and the two others are unstable. While for idc > 0.765,
system (4) has two equilibrium points where one is stable
and the other is unstable. It is noted that by vaying idc
from 0 to 1.245, the four equilibrium points of system (4)
are replaced by two equilibrium points originating from
a pitchfork bifurcation for which one of the eigenvalues
of the characteristic equation (6) is zero. The analytical
expression of the DC at which the pitchfork bifurcation
appeared is:
∗ ∗ ∗
iP F
dc = sin (φ ) − 2 cos (φ ) tan (φ /2) . (8)
The value of the pitchfork current explicitly depends
on the steady state φ∗ associated to the equilibrium
point E = (φ∗ , 0) and implicitly depends on the frac-
tional parameter m. For m = 0.34 using equation (8), the
Page 3 of 5
pitchfork bifurcation appeared at iP F
dc ≈ 0.765 as shown
in Figure 1b. In Figure 2, the current-voltage for specific
values of parameter m is plotted when i(t) = idc .
In Figure 2, it is noticed that system (4) has a region of
hysteresis delimited by the two sets of data [for increas-
ing (black line) and decreasing (red line)] used to plot
Figure 2. Moreover, the width of the hysteresis region
becomes larger by increasing the fractional parameter m.
When the external current source is an alternative
(ω,im ) is illustrated in Figure 3 to identify the dynamical
behaviors of system (4) for m = 0.
In Figure 3, colors are associated with the magnitude of
the LLE as follows: Blue stands for the negative and posi-
tive LLE is indicated by a continuously changing between
light blue–red scales passing through green and yellow
scales. Chaotic regions are characterized by positive LLE
which correspond to a combination of light blue–green-
yellow–red color on LLE diagrams. Periodic behaviors and
excitable mode are characterized by negative LLE which
correspond to blue color. By comparing Figures 3a and
3b, it is shown that the increase of idc leads to a wider
range of chaos all over the parameter space. For idc = 0.3,
the LLE diagrams versus the two-parameters (ωm , im )
is plotted in Figure 4 for two specific value of fractional
parameter m.
In Figure 4, chaotic regions are characterized by pos-
itive LLE which correspond to a combination of light
blue–green-yellow–red color on LLE diagrams. Periodic
behaviors and excitable mode are characterized by neg-
ative LLE which correspond to blue color. By comparing
Figures 4a and 4b, it is shown that the increase of frac-
tional parameter m leads to a narrow range of chaos
all over the parameter space. For specific the fractional
Page 4 of 5
Fig. 5. The bifurcation diagram depicting the local max-
ima of V (t) (a) and the corresponding LLE (b) versus the
amplitude of modulation im for m = 0.34, idc = 0.3, ω = 0.17
and βc = 25. Bifurcation diagram are obtained by scanning
the amplitude of modulation im upwards (black shaded) and
downwards (red shaded).
Fig. 6. Bistable (first line for im = 0.314) and chaotic (sec-
ond line for im = 1.8) behaviors depicting time series of φ,
V and the corresponding phase portraits. The curves in black
are obtained using the initial conditions (φ(0) = 0, V (0) =
0) whereas the curves in grey are obtained using the initial
conditions (φ(0) = 0, V (0) = 0.6). The others parameters are
m = 0.34, idc = 0.3, ω = 0.17 and βc = 25.
parameter, DC and modulation current, the bifurcation
diagram with respect to the amplitude of modulation im
and the related LLE is presented in Figure 5.
By varying the parameter im from 0.002 to 2.0, the
bifurcation diagram of the voltage V (t) in Figure 5a dis-
plays period-1-oscillation followed by a period-doubling
bifurcation to chaotic behavior interspersed with peri-
odic windows. The bifurcation diagram of Figure 5a
Eur. Phys. J. B (2020) 93: 143
also exhibits bistable behaviors. The dynamical behav-
iors found in Figure 5a are confirmed by the LLE shown
in Figure 5b. The bistable and chaotic behaviors found
in Figure 5 are further illustrated in Figure 6 for specific
values of parameter im .
JJ with topologically nontrivial barrier displays bistable
and chaotic behaviors for specific values of parameter im
and the initial conditions as shown in Figure 6.
3 Conclusion
This work reports on the analytical and numerical
analysis of Josephson junction with topologically non-
trivial barrier. It was found that Josephson junction
with topologically nontrivial barrier has four or two or
no equilibrium points depending on the external direct
current source and the fractional parameter. By using
the Routh–Hurwitz stability criterion and linear stability
of the equilibrium points, it was found that pitchfork
bifurcation occurs in Josephson junction with topo-
logically nontrivial barrier. The inclusion of fractional
parameter in Josephson junction leads to an increase in
the hysteresis loop of current-voltage characteristics. For
specific modulation parameters of external current source,
it was shown that Josephson junction with topologically
nontrivial barrier can exhibit excitable mode, bistable,
periodic and chaotic behaviors.
The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers
for their valuable comments and suggestions which helped to
improve the quality of the manuscript.
Author contribution statement
Sifeu Takougang Kingni and Andre Cheukem devel-
oped the model and analyzed the data. André Cheage
Chamgoué and Fulbert Togue Kamga participated in the
data analysis at different stages. All authors contributed
to the interpretation of the results and writing of the
manuscript.
Publisher’s Note The EPJ Publishers remain neutral with
regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu-
tional affiliations.
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