Spontaneous creation of discrete breathers in Josephson arrays

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We report on the experimental generation of discrete breather states (intrinsic localized modes) in frustrated Josephson arrays. Our experiments indicate the formation of discrete breathers during the transition from the static to the dynamic (whirling) system state, induced by a uniform external current. Moreover, spatially extended resonant states, driven by a uniform current, are observed to evolve into localized breather states. Experiments were performed on single Josephson plaquettes as well as open-ended Josephson ladders with 10 and 20 cells. We interpret the breather formation as the result of the penetration of vortices into the system.