Length/voltage Phase Diagram for a Thin Superconducting Wire Subjected to an Applied Voltage

A thin superconducting wire (bridge) subjected to a voltage gradient is studied via the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau system under bridge geometry boundary conditions. Our numerical experiments reveal a rich array of phase slip center behavior, period-doubling, period-tripling and quasi-periodic solutions. We show that the parameter plane (L, V ), where 2L = wire length, V = voltage, is partitioned into regimes where the solutions exhibit different periodicity. In particular we find that when L is below a certain critical value, the system always evolves to a state that has the basic Josephson period P = 2π/V .