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Optimal parametric control of transport across a Josephson junction

Hannah Kleine-Pollmann1,*, Guido Homann1, and Ludwig Mathey1,2

  • *Contact author: hannah.kleinepollmann@uni-hamburg.de
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 023313 – Published 17 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/5s3j-scll

Abstract

We present optimal control strategies for the dc transport across a Josephson junction. Specifically, we consider a junction in which the Josephson coupling is driven parametrically, with either a bichromatic or a trichromatic driving protocol, and optimize the prefactor of the 1/ω divergence of the imaginary part of the conductivity, which we refer to as the effective Josephson coupling Jeff. We demonstrate that for an optimal bichromatic protocol an enhancement of Jeff by a factor of 70 can be reached, and for an optimal trichromatic protocol an enhancement by a factor of 135. This is motivated by pump-probe experiments that have demonstrated light-enhanced superconductivity along the c axis of underdoped YBa2Cu3O6+δ (YBCO), where the junction serves as a minimal model for the c-axis coupling of superconducting layers. Therefore, the significant enhancement of superconductivity that we show for multifrequency protocols demonstrates that the advancement of pump-probe technology toward these strategies is highly desirable.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 023313– Published 17 June, 2026
  • Received 6 May 2024
  • Accepted 27 May 2026
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