Incommensurate dynamics of resonant breathers in Josephson junction ladders

We present theoretical and experimental studies of resonant localized resistive states in a Josephson junction ladder. These complex breather states are obtained by tuning the breather frequency into the upper band of linear electromagnetic oscillations of the ladder. Their prominent feature is the appearance of resonant steps in the current–voltage (I–V) characteristics. We have found the resonant breatherlike states displaying incommensurate dynamics. Numerical simulations show that these incommensurate resonant breathers persist for very low values of damping. Qualitatively similar incommensurate breather states are observed in experiments performed with Nb-based Josephson ladders. We explain the appearance of these states with the help of resonance-induced hysteresis features in the I–V dependence.