Spatially resolved detection of mutually locked Josephson junctions in arrays

Mutual locking due to the internal coupling in two-dimensional arrays of Josephson junctions was investigated. The appearance of Shapiro steps in the current versus voltage curve of a coupled on-chip detector junction is used to indicate coherent oscillations in the array. A highly coherent state is observed for some range of the array bias current. By scanning the array with a low-power electron beam, mutually locked junctions remain locked while the unlocked junctions generate a beam-induced additional voltage drop at the array. This imaging technique allows the detection of the nonlocked or weakly locked Josephson junctions in a (partially) locked array state.