Direct evidence of macroscopic quantum effects at high temperature

We present experiments; on macroscopic quantum effects in Josephson junctions with different relevant junction parameters at a temperature well above the classical-quantum crossover temperature. This has been possible by extending the measurements on the escape rate out of the metastable state at higher sweeping frequency (dI/dt up to 100 A/sec.) in order to induce non-stationary conditions in the energy potential describing the junction dynamics. The non-stationary regime for the system allows a direct observation of energy level quantitation when the rate of change of the external energy, measured in terms of the level spacing, is fast with respect to the thermal transitions between levels.