Onset of chaos in the rf-biased Josephson junction

Abstract

The onset of chaos in the rf-biased Josephson junction is studied through numerical simulations. It is shown that the chaotic region predicted by the method of Melnikov spans only a narrow region of rf amplitudes and consists of weakly chaotic solutions which maintain phase lock with the rf bias. The experimentally observed threshold of chaos is shown to coincide with the onset of unlocked chaotic behavior at higher rf amplitudes.