Superconductor-insulator duality for the array of Josephson wires

Abstract

We propose novel model system for the studies of superconductor-insulator transitions, which is a regular lattice, whose each link consists of Josephson-junction chain of $N \gg 1$ junctions in sequence. The theory of such an array is developed for the case of semiclassical junctions with the Josephson energy $E_J$ large compared to the junctions's Coulomb energy $E_C$. Exact duality transformation is derived, which transforms the Hamiltonian of the proposed model into a standard Hamiltonian of JJ array. The nature of the ground state is controlled (in the absence of random offset charges) by the parameter $q \approx N^2 \exp(-\sqrt{8E_J/E_C})$, with superconductive state corresponding to small $q < q_c $. The values of $q_c$ are calculated for magnetic frustrations $f= 0$ and $f= \frac12$. Temperature of superconductive transition $T_c(q)$ and $q < q_c$ is estimated for the same values of $f$. In presence of strong random offset charges, the T=0 phase diagram is controlled by the parameter $\bar{q} = q/\sqrt{N}$; we estimated critical value $\bar{q}_c$.