Thermal fluctuations in ultrasmall intrinsic Josephson junctions -: art. no. 014506

Current-voltage curves of small area hysteretic intrinsic Josephson junctions, for which the Josephson energy E-J=hJ(c)/2e is of the order of thermal energy kT, are investigated. A nonmonotonic temperature dependence of the switching current is observed and explained by thermal phase fluctuations. At low temperatures premature switching from the superconducting into the resistive state is the most important effect of fluctuations. At high temperatures only a single resistive branch is observed. At the cross over temperature a hysteretic phase-diffusion branch exists. It shows the importance of a frequency-dependent impedance of an external circuit formed by the leads.