Supercurrent flow through a semiconductor: the transport properties of superconductor–semiconductor hybrid structures

✍ Scribed by Herbert Kroemer

• Book ID: 104429222
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 181 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1386-9477
• DOI: 10.1016/s1386-9477(98)00181-7

✦ Synopsis

When heavily modulation-doped InAs quantum wells are contacted by a pair of closely spaced superconducting electrodes, the electrical resistance through the structure gradually vanishes when the temperature is dropped below the critical temperature of the electrodes. The I-» characteristics eventually become qualitatively similar to those of more conventional Josephson junctions and weak links. Quantitatively, though, major differences exist, believed to be a consequence of electrode separations that are large compared to those in more conventional SNS weak links. The underlying physics is that of ballistic electron transport in the semiconductor, combined with Andreev reflections at the superconducting electrodes.