Hamiltonian approach to the ac Josephson effect in superconducting-normal hybrid systems

The ac Josephson effect in hybrid systems of a normal mesoscopic conductor coupled to two superconducting (S) leads is investigated theoretically. A general formula of the ac components of time-dependent current is derived which is valid for arbitrary interactions in the normal region. We apply this formula to analyze a S-normal-S system where the normal region is a noninteracting single level quantum dot. We report the physical behavior of time-averaged nonequilibrium distribution of electrons in the quantum dot, the formation of Andreev bound states, and ac components of the time-dependent current. The distribution is found to exhibit a population inversion; and all Andreev bound states between the superconducting gap ∆ carry the same amount of current and in the same flow direction. The ac components of time-dependent current show strong oscillatory behavior in marked contrast to the subharmonic gap structure of the average current. 74.50.+r, 73.40.Gk, 73.23.-b, 72.15.Nj Typeset using REVTEX 1