Carsten Timm: Theory of superconductivity
Carsten Timm: Theory of superconductivity
Carsten Timm: Theory of superconductivity
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Since not all electrons are reflected and in addition some holes are generated, where does the missing charge go?<br />
The quasiparticle states in the superconductor are evanescent and thus cannot accommodate the missing charge.<br />
The only possible explanation is that the charge is added to the superconducting condensate, i.e., that additional<br />
Cooper pairs are formed. (The whole process can also run backwards, in which case Cooper pairs are removed.)<br />
Recall that the condensate does not have a sharp electron number and can therefore absorb or emit electrons<br />
without changing the state. But it can only absorb or emit electrons in pairs. The emerging picture is that if<br />
an incoming electron is not specularly reflected, a Cooper pair is created, which requires a second electron. This<br />
second electron is taken from the normal region, creating a hole, which, as we have seen, travels in the direction<br />
the original electron was coming from.<br />
N<br />
S<br />
e<br />
h<br />
Cooper<br />
pair<br />
Andreev bound states<br />
An interesting situation arises if a normal region is delimited by superconductors on two sides. We here only<br />
qualitatively consider a superconductor-normal-superconductor (SNS) hetero structure. Similar effects can also<br />
occur for example in the normal core <strong>of</strong> a vortex.<br />
If no voltage is applied between the two superconductors, an electron in the normal region, with energy<br />
within the gap, is Andreev reflected as a hole at one interface. It is then Andreev reflected as an electron at<br />
the other interface. It is plausible that multiple reflections can lead to the formation <strong>of</strong> bound states. The real<br />
physics is somewhat more complicated since the electron is also partially specularly reflected as an electron. It is<br />
conceptually clear, though, how to describe Andreev bound states within the Bogoliubov-de Gennes formalism:<br />
We just have to satisfy continuity conditions for both interfaces.<br />
S<br />
N<br />
S<br />
2∆<br />
0<br />
electron<br />
hole<br />
2∆<br />
0<br />
If Andreev reflection dominates, as assumed for the sketch above, a Cooper pair is emitted into the right superconductor<br />
for every reflection at the right interface. Conversely, a Cooper pair is absorbed from the left<br />
superconductor for every reflection at the left interface. This corresponds to a supercurrent through the device.<br />
Andreev bound states thus <strong>of</strong>fer a microscopic description <strong>of</strong> the Josephson effect in superconductor-normalsuperconductor<br />
junctions.<br />
If we apply a voltage V , the situation changes dramatically: If an electron moving, say, to the right, increases<br />
its kinetic energy by eV due to the bias voltage, an Andreev reflected hole traveling to the left also increases its<br />
kinetic energy by eV since it carries the opposite charge. An electron/hole Andreev-reflected multiple times can<br />
thus gain arbitrarily high energies for any non-vanishing bias voltage.<br />
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