Absorption of heat into a superconductor-normal metal-superconductor junction from a fluctuating environment

摘要

We study a diffusive superconductor-normal metal-superconductor junction inan environment with intrinsic incoherent fluctuations which couple to thejunction through an electromagnetic field. When the temperature of the junctiondiffers from that of the environment, this coupling leads to an energy transferbetween the two systems, taking the junction out of equilibrium. We describethis effect in the linear response regime and show that the change in thesupercurrent induced by this coupling leads to qualitative changes in thecurrent-phase relation and for a certain range of parameters, an increase inthe critical current of the junction. Besides normal metals, similar effectscan be expected also in other conducting weak links.