TY - JOUR
T1 - Manifestation of coherent effects in the conductivity of superconductor/insulator/normal-metal/insulator/superconductor junctions
AU - Nevirkovets, P.
AU - Shafranjuk, E.
AU - Ketterson, B.
PY - 2003
Y1 - 2003
N2 - An experimental and theoretical study is presented of coherent effects in electron transport in the double-barrier SINIS junctions (where S, I, and N denote a superconductor, insulator, and normal metal, respectively). The appearance of a steplike subgap structure in the current-voltage characteristics of the Nb/Al/AlOx/Al/AlOx/Al/Nb superconducting junctions at a voltage V∼ΔNb/e (where ΔNb is the superconducting energy gap of Nb) is interpreted as a manifestation of a nonequilibrium supercurrent at finite dc bias voltage (Finite-Bias Josephson Effect). The origin of this effect lies in the energy-band structure associated with a set of macroscopic quantum states characteristic of a SINIS junction. Specifically, the junction can have an energy level near energy ΔNb, which provides an additional channel for dc Josephson current at V∼ΔNb/e. In addition, sharp features in the conductivity at a voltage near the gap-sum voltage were observed in both SINIS and SINININIS junctions, implying correlated quasiparticle tunneling in multiple-barrier junctions. Our theoretical model provides a good qualitative description of the quasiparticle conductivity, including narrow peaks at finite voltage and a zero-voltage anomaly observed on some samples, and suggests an alternative explanation of a feature interpreted earlier as gap-difference feature associated with the tunneling extraction of quasiparticles from the middle Al layer.
AB - An experimental and theoretical study is presented of coherent effects in electron transport in the double-barrier SINIS junctions (where S, I, and N denote a superconductor, insulator, and normal metal, respectively). The appearance of a steplike subgap structure in the current-voltage characteristics of the Nb/Al/AlOx/Al/AlOx/Al/Nb superconducting junctions at a voltage V∼ΔNb/e (where ΔNb is the superconducting energy gap of Nb) is interpreted as a manifestation of a nonequilibrium supercurrent at finite dc bias voltage (Finite-Bias Josephson Effect). The origin of this effect lies in the energy-band structure associated with a set of macroscopic quantum states characteristic of a SINIS junction. Specifically, the junction can have an energy level near energy ΔNb, which provides an additional channel for dc Josephson current at V∼ΔNb/e. In addition, sharp features in the conductivity at a voltage near the gap-sum voltage were observed in both SINIS and SINININIS junctions, implying correlated quasiparticle tunneling in multiple-barrier junctions. Our theoretical model provides a good qualitative description of the quasiparticle conductivity, including narrow peaks at finite voltage and a zero-voltage anomaly observed on some samples, and suggests an alternative explanation of a feature interpreted earlier as gap-difference feature associated with the tunneling extraction of quasiparticles from the middle Al layer.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevB.68.024514
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevB.68.024514
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:4444250941
SN - 1098-0121
VL - 68
JO - Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
JF - Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
IS - 2
ER -