2000/08/08 by I. K. Yanson, Yanson, I. K.
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0008116
17 pages, 8 figures. Presented at NATO ASI "Quantum Mesoscopic Phenomena and Mesoscopic Devices in Microelectronics", Ankara-Antalya, 14-25 June 1999
arxiv created 2000/08/08 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
The point-contact spectroscopy, in contrast to the tunneling spectrocopy, considers small electrical contacts with direct conductivity. In the normal state, it enables one to measure the spectral function of electron-boson interaction. In the superconducting state, new features appear connected with the energy dependence of excess current. The non-linearities of the current-voltage characteristic are due to: i) The inelastic scattering of electron quasiparticles in the contact region; ii) The energy dependence of the superconducting energy gap, and iii) The non-equilibrium superconducting effects. These effects are discussed from the experimental point of view