Nonequilibrium excitations in superconducting aluminum and high-temperature superconducting devices

This thesis describes work done in two separate areas of the field of superconductivity. The first part describes experiments performed to measure a predicted, but previously unmeasured non-equilibrium effect in superconducting aluminum. A charge imbalance, or charging of the normal fluid with respect to the superfluid, is generated by the interaction of an electric field and a supercurrent. The author has shown that this effect does occur, however the measured temperature dependence of this effect does not agree with existing theory. In the second part of this thesis he reports on efforts to make simple superconductor devices from the high-Tc ceramic oxide superconductors. He has made thin films of both YBa2Cu3O7-x and BiSrCaCuO by several methods, and measurements of bulk film properties are presented. These films have been patterned into different structures in a number of ways, including an in-situ ion milling modification technique. Data on these devices, and grain-boundary SQUIDS are presented