| Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 66, Number 2, April 2004
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 265 - 271 | |
| Section | Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2003-10181-4 | |
| Published online | 01 April 2004 | |
Observation of a new non-equilibrium state in superconductors caused by sequential tunnelling
1
Department of Physics, Lancaster University - Lancaster, UK
2
Science Payloads and Advanced Concepts Office, SCI-A European Space Agency, ESTEC - Noordwijk, The Netherlands
Received:
8
October
2003
Accepted:
5
February
2004
A previously unrecognised non-equilibrium phenomenon in
superconducting tunnel junctions is identified. The situation may
arise in low-loss, low-gap, multi-tunnelling devices in which
quasiparticles retain accumulated energy through several cycles of
sequential forward and back tunnelling. As a consequence, a stable
non-equilibrium distribution is established, in which many
quasiparticles have energies exceeding the 
threshold
for breaking Cooper pairs, resulting in a large excess current.
By solving the system of coupled kinetic equations for
quasiparticles and phonons, we have modelled the quasiparticle
distribution and excess current, and have confirmed the
predictions through experiments on an appropriate superconducting
tunnel junction.
PACS: 74.25.Fy – Transport properties (electric and thermal conductivity, thermoelectric effects, etc.) / 74.25.Kc – Phonons / 85.25.-j – Superconducting devices
© EDP Sciences, 2004
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