Prof. Roman Mints

A Josephson junction is a quantum mechanical device consisting of two superconductors separated by a very thin barrier. In spite of the barrier, and due to quantum mechanics, the superconducting electrons in one superconductor “feel” their neighbors in the other superconductor and “synchronize” with them. This quantum mechanical coherence on a macroscopic scale allows using Josephson junctions as very precise sensors of magnetic fields, e.g., for imaging, or as basic elements for a scalable quantum computer.

Our research is focused on the fundamental and applied physics of the Josephson effect.

• Josephson junctions with alternating critical current density, physics of the Josephson effect in grain boundaries in thin films of high-temperature superconductors and superconductor-ferromagnet-superconductor tunnel junctions, splinter vortices carrying nonquantized flux;

• Nonlocal electrodynamics of Josephson junctions in thin films of high-temperature superconductors, Cherenkov radiation by nonquantized splinter vortices;

• Coherent emission of terahertz electromagnetic waves from intrinsic Josephson junction stacks in layered high-temperature superconductors in the regime of high-bias current that creates spatial regions with temperature above the critical temperature.

• Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 1962-1968

• M.Sc. in Physics, cum laude, Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, 1968

• Ph.D. in Physics, Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, 1971

• D.Sc. in Physics, Institute for High Temperatures, Moscow, 1981

• Scientist, Institute for High Temperatures, Moscow, 1976-1986

• Senior Scientist, Institute for High Temperatures, Moscow, 1986-1987

• Chairman, Solid State Theory Department, Institute for High Temperatures, 1987-1990

• Associate Professor, Physics Department, Tel Aviv University, 1990-1997

• Guest scientist, Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory, Dallas, Texas, 1992-1993

• Visiting scientist, Ames Lab, Ames, USA, 1998-2012

• Visiting scientist, Max-Planck-Institute for Metals, Stuttgart, 1995-2001

• Visiting scientist, University of Augsburg, 2005-2007

• Full Professor Physics Department, Tel Aviv University, 1997-Present

• Visiting Scientist, University of Tuebingen, 2010-2012

• USSR State Prize for “Stabilization of Superconducting Systems”, 1988

• Guastalla fellow, Tel Aviv University, 1992-1994

• Fellow of American Physical Society since 2013