Abstract
If an electron-like (k>kF) or a hole-like (k<kF) excitation is added to a superconductor, a charge imbalance is created. Charge imbalance is of practical importance first, because it gives rise to a measureable steady-state voltage in a superconductor, and second, because it provides a tool for measuring various electron-relaxation rates. The importance of the disequilibrium of the electron- and hole-like branches was first pointed out by Pippard et al. (1971) who measured the electrical resistance of superconductor-normal metal-superconductor (SNS) sandwiches as a function of temperature. Near the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, they found that the resistance increased with increasing temperature. They ascribed this increase to the propagation of quasiparticles having a branch imbalance distribution into or out of the superconductor, a process that, at the time, they believed generated a potential step at each NS interface, and thus produced an additional boundary resistance. However, the first quantitative understanding of charge imbalance arose from experiments in which electrons were injected via a tunnel junction into a superconducting film (Clarke 1972); at the time this experiment was performed, its connection with the NS interface resistance was not apparent.
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Clarke, J. (1981). Charge Imbalance. In: Gray, K.E. (eds) Nonequilibrium Superconductivity, Phonons, and Kapitza Boundaries. NATO Advanced Study Institutes Series, vol 65. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3935-9_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3935-9_13
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