We study theoretically the current-voltage characteristics of intrinsic Josephson junctions in high-Tc superconductors. An oscillation of the breakpoint current on the outermost branch as a function of coupling alpha and dissipation beta parameters is found. We explain this oscillation as a result of the creation of longitudinal plasma waves at the breakpoint with different wave numbers. We demonstrate the commensurability effect and predict a group behavior of the current-voltage characteristics for the stacks with a different number of junctions. A method to determine the wave number of longitudinal plasma waves from alpha and beta dependence of the breakpoint current is suggested. We model the alpha and beta dependence of the breakpoint current and obtain good agreement with the results of the simulation.

We study the breakpoint region on the outermost branch of current-voltage characteristics of the stacks with different number of intrinsic Josephson junctions. We show that at periodic boundary conditions the breakpoint region is absent for stacks with even number of junctions. For stacks with odd number of junctions and for stacks with nonperiodic boundary conditions the breakpoint current is increased with number of junctions and saturated at the value corresponding to the periodic boundary conditions. The region of saturation and the saturated value depend on the coupling between junctions. We explain the results by the parametric resonance at the breakpoint and excitation of the longitudinal plasma wave by Josephson oscillations. A way for the diagnostics of the junctions in the stack is proposed.

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We study magnetization reversal in a ϕ 0 Josephson junction with direct coupling between magnetic moment and Josephson current. Our simulations of magnetic moment dynamics show that by applying an electric current pulse, we can realize the full magnetization reversal. We propose different protocols of full magnetization reversal based on the variation of the Josephson junction and pulse parameters, particularly, electric current pulse amplitude, damping of magnetization and spin-orbit interaction. We discuss experiments which can probe the magnetization reversal in ϕ 0 -junctions.