0000000000858242
AUTHOR
A. B. Pavolotski
Nonlocality in superconducting microstructures
We discuss experimental evidence of nonlocality in electron transport of small structures. It is shown that for superconductors reasonable agreement with experiment can be achieved by assuming exponential decay of the nonlocal interaction ∝ exp(—Lξ), where L is the distance between the interacting points and ξ is the correlation length. ξ is associated with the Ginzburg - Landau coherence length ξGL.
Superconducting transition of single-crystal tin microstructures
Single-crystal superconducting microstructures have been fabricated. The resistances of tin whiskers were measured in a multiprobe configuration. Contacts were made of copper, gold, or niobium films using e-beam lithography followed by a lift-off process. Structures with normal metal probes showed unusual behavior: below the critical temperature of bulk tin, the resistance decreases in distinct steps and does not reach zero even when cooled down to 1 K. The origin of these phenomena is not clear but is likely related to a proximity effect.