Probing Inelastic Collisions by Pair Breaking in a Superconductor
Yuri N. OvchinnikovInstitut für Theorie der Kondensierten Materie, Universität Karlsruhe, D-7500 Karlsruhe, Federal Republic of GermanyAlbert SchmidInstitut für Theorie der Kondensierten Materie, Universität Karlsruhe, D-7500 Karlsruhe, Federal Republic of GermanyGerd SchönInstitut für Theorie der Kondensierten Materie, Universität Karlsruhe, D-7500 Karlsruhe, Federal Republic of Germany
1981en
ABI
Abstract
A method is proposed which allows a direct determination of the inelastic collision rate of quasiparticles at the gap edge. This method can be explained as follows. Let a supercurrent remove the singularity in the density of states by pair breaking. Since the number of quasiparticles remains constant, they subsequently build up a nonequilibrium population which is extremely well localized near the gap edge. The decay of this excess population can then be observed in the fluctuations of the supercurrent.
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