Voltage-biased I-V characteristics in the multi-Josephson junction model of high T_c superconductor

By use of the multi-Josephson junction model, we investigate voltage-biased I-V characteristics. Differently from the case of the single junction, I-V characteristics show a complicated behavior due to inter-layer couplings among superconducting phase differences mediated by the charging effect. We show that there exist three characteristic regions, which are identified by jumps and cusps in the I-V curve. In the low voltage region, the total current is periodic with trigonometric functional increases and rapid drops. Then a kind of chaotic region is followed. Above certain voltage, the total current behaves with a simple harmonic oscillation and the I-V characteristics form a multi-branch structure as in the current-biased case. The above behavior is the result of the inter-layer coupling, and may be used to confirm the inter-layer coupling mechanism of the formation of hysteresis branches.