Transmission resonances in a semiconductor-superconductor junction quantum interference structure

Abstract

Transport properties in a quantum resonator structure of a normal-conductor-superconductor (NS) junction are calculated. Quasiparticles in a cavity region undergo multiple reflections due to an abrupt change in the width of the wire and the NS interface. Quantum interference of the reflections modulates the nominal normal reflection probability at the NS boundary. We show that various NS structures can be regarded as the quantum resonator because of the absence of propagation along the NS interface. When the incident energy coincides with the quasibound state energy levels, the zero-voltage conductance exhibits peaks for small voltages applied to the NS junction. The transmission peaks change to dips of nearly perfect reflection when the applied voltage exceeds a critical value. Two branches of the resonance, which are roughly characterized by electron and hole wavelengths, emerge from the individual dip, and the energy difference between them increases with increasing voltage. The electronlike and holelike resonance dips originating from different quasibound states at zero-voltage cross one after another when the voltage approaches the superconducting gap. We find that both crossing and anticrossing can be produced. It is shown that the individual resonance state in the NS system is associated with two zeros and two poles in the complex energy plane. The behavior of the resonance is explained in terms of splitting and merging of the zero-pole pairs. We examine the Green's function of a one-dimensional NS system in order to find out how the transmission properties are influenced by the scattering from the NS interface.

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