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Crossover from mesoscopic to classical proximity effects, induced by particle-hole symmetry breaking in Andreev interferometers

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<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1996
<mark>Journal</mark>Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter
Issue number4
Volume8
Number of pages6
Pages (from-to)L45-L50
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

When two superconducting contacts are made on either side of a mesoscopic normal wire, the electrical conductance is a periodic function of the phase difference between the superconductors. For this structure, the oscillation at zero voltage and zero temperature is a small mesoscopic effect, with an amplitude of order e(2)/h. In contrast, we predict that a finite bias voltage V will induce giant oscillations associated with the classical proximity effect. These are a finite fraction of the overall conductance, exhibit a maximum when eV equals the Thouless energy, and decrease at higher voltages. This effect may account for the large-amplitude oscillations measured in recent experiments by Petrashov et al.