noun Electronics.
- a high-speed switch, used in experimental computers, that operates on the basis of a radiative phenomenon (Jo·sephson effect) exhibited by a pair of superconductors separated by a thin insulator.
noun
- physics any one of the phenomena which occur when an electric current passes through a very thin insulating layer between two superconducting substances. The applications include the very precise standardization of the volt
- An effect in which electron pairs undergo quantum tunneling with zero resistance across a barrier separating two superconductors. The effect can be manipulated by varying a magnetic field at the junction where the tunneling occurs and is being investigated as a possible part of the design of high-speed switches for computer microprocessors. The Josephson effect is named after its discoverer, Welsh physicist Brian David Josephson (b. 1940).