Electron tunneling through a BCS superconductor with an unpaired electron

Zhenghao Wang; Changde Gong

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.55.2776

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Electron tunneling through a BCS superconductor with an unpaired electron

Zhenghao Wang, Changde Gong

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.55.2776 · Physical Review B

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Abstract

We calculate the second-order above gap tunneling current of a mesoscopic double junction system. The middle island is a BCS superconductor, which might contain an even or odd number of electrons. In the case of odd number parity, there is an unpaired electron in the superconducting island. We study the effect of this unpaired electron on the tunneling current through modification to the BCS Green's function. It is found that the tunneling current decreases because of this unpaired electron. Within a certain range of parameters, this second-order current is the preponderant contribution to the I-V characteristic of the double junction and therefore should be measurable.