Adiabatic transport of Cooper pairs in arrays of Josephson junctions

J. P. Pekola, J. J. Toppari, M. Aunola, M. T. Savolainen, D. V. Averin

Published 1999-04-19, updated 1999-07-27Version 2

We have developed a quantitative theory of Cooper pair pumping in gated one-dimensional arrays of Josephson junctions. The pumping accuracy is limited by quantum tunneling of Cooper pairs out of the propagating potential well and by direct supercurrent flow through the array. Both corrections decrease exponentially with the number N of junctions in the array, but give a serious limitation of accuracy for any practical array. The supercurrent at resonant gate voltages decreases with N only as sin(v/N)/N, where v is the Josephson phase difference across the array.