Nonlocal supercurrent in mesoscopic multiterminal SNS Josephson junction in the low-temperature limit

Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics. 2014. Vol. 89. P. 104507.

Golikova T. E., Wolf M. J., Beckmann D., Batov I. E., Bobkova I. V., Bobkov A. M., Ryazanov V.

A nonlocal supercurrent was observed in mesoscopic planar SNS Josephson junctions with additional normal-metal electrodes, where nonequilibrium quasiparticles were injected from a normal-metal electrode into one of the superconducting banks of the Josephson junction in the absence of a net transport current through the junction. We claim that the observed effect is due to a supercurrent counterflow, appearing to compensate for the quasiparticle flow in the SNS weak link. We have measured the responses of SNS junctions for different distances between the quasiparticle injector and the SNS junction at temperatures far below the superconducting transition temperature. The charge-imbalance relaxation length was estimated by using a modified Kadin, Smith, and Skocpol scheme in the case of a planar geometry. The model developed allows us to describe the interplay of charge imbalance and Josephson effects in the nanoscale proximity system in detail.

Keywords: superconducting hybrid structures