Supercurrent in Atomic Point Contacts and Andreev States

M. F. Goffman, R. Cron, A. Levy Yeyati, P. Joyez, M. H. Devoret, D. Esteve, and C. Urbina
Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 170 – Published 3 July 2000
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Abstract

We have measured the supercurrent in aluminum atomic point contacts containing a small number of well characterized conduction channels. For most contacts, the measured supercurrent is adequately described by the opposite contributions of two thermally populated Andreev bound states per conduction channel. However, for contacts containing an almost perfectly transmitted channel 0.9τ1 the measured supercurrent is higher than expected, a fact that we attribute to nonadiabatic transitions between bound states.

  • Received 13 December 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.170

©2000 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

M. F. Goffman1, R. Cron1, A. Levy Yeyati2, P. Joyez1, M. H. Devoret1, D. Esteve1, and C. Urbina1

  • 1Service de Physique de l'Etat Condensé, CEA-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
  • 2Departamento de Física Teórica de la Materia Condensada C-V, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, E-28049 Madrid, Spain

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Vol. 85, Iss. 1 — 3 July 2000

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