Published April 13, 1981 | Version v1
Journal article

Probing inelastic collisions by pair breaking in a superconductor

  • 1. Institut fuer Theorie der Kondensierten Materie, Universitaet Karlsruhe, D-7500 Karlsruhe, Federal Republic of Germany

Description

A method is proposed which allows a direct determination of the inelastic collision rate of quasiparticles at the gap edge. This method can be explained as follows. Let a supercurrent remove the singularity in the density of states by pair breaking. Since the number of quasiparticles remains constant, they subsequently build up a nonequilibrium population which is extremely well localized near the gap edge. The decay of this excess population can then be observed in the fluctuations of the supercurrent

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Phys. Rev. Lett.
Journal Volume
46
Journal Issue
15
Series
Phys. Rev. Lett.
Journal Page Range
1013-1016
ISSN
0031-9007

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
United States
INIS RN
12631052
Subject category
S71: CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS;
Descriptors DEI
ENERGY GAP; FLUCTUATIONS; INELASTIC SCATTERING; QUASI PARTICLES; SUPERCONDUCTIVITY; SUPERCONDUCTORS
Descriptors DEC
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY; ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES; PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; SCATTERING; VARIATIONS