Quantum phase dynamics of high-Tc Josephson junctions

Paper in proceeding, 2009

We study quantum phase fluctuations in planar junctions between high-Tc superconductors for a range of relative orientations of the a-b crystal axes. Specifically, attention is directed towards the fermionic subspace of low energy Andreev bound states, midgap states (MGS). This subspace, being responsible for most of the Josephson current, strongly couples to the phase degree of freedom. Low frequency phase fluctuations may introduce intrinsic dynamics in this subspace, which would lead to a strong dynamical modulation of the Josephson current, and thus affect the phase quantum dynamics. In this article it is found that transitions between pairs of MGS induced by the phase fluctuations are forbidden due to specific symmetry properties of the MGS, and the macroscopic quantum Hamiltonian remains essentially adiabatic within the assumption of a specular interface.