105 research outputs found
Direct demonstration of circulating currents in a controllable -SQUID generated by a 0 to transition of the weak links
A controllable -SQUID is a DC SQUID with two controllable
-junctions as weak links. A controllable -junction consists of a
superconducting - normal metal - superconducting Josephson junction with two
additional contacts to the normal region of the junction. By applying a voltage
over these contacts it is possible to control the sate of the junction,
i.e. a conventional (0) state or a -state, depending on the magnitude of
. We demonstrate experimentally that, by putting one junction into a
-state, a screening current is generated around the SQUID loop at integer
external flux. To be able to do this, we have fabricated controllable
-junctions, based on Cu-Nb or Ag-Nb, in a new geometry. We show that at
1.4 K only the Nb-Ag device shows the transition to a -state as a function
of consistent with theoretical predictions. In a controllable SQUID
based on Nb-Ag we observe, a part from a screening current at integer external
flux, a phase shift of of the oscillations under suitable
current bias, depending on the magnitude of .Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, subm. to Phys. Rev.
Observation of a controllable PI-junction in a 3-terminal Josephson device
Recently Baselmans et al. [Nature, 397, 43 (1999)] showed that the direction
of the supercurrent in a superconductor/normal/superconductor Josephson
junction can be reversed by applying, perpendicularly to the supercurrent, a
sufficiently large control current between two normal reservoirs. The novel
behavior of their 4-terminal device (called a controllable PI-junction) arises
from the nonequilibrium electron energy distribution established in the normal
wire between the two superconductors. We have observed a similar supercurrent
reversal in a 3-terminal device, where the control current passes from a single
normal reservoir into the two superconductors. We show theoretically that this
behavior, although intuitively less obvious, arises from the same
nonequilibrium physics present in the 4-terminal device. Moreover, we argue
that the amplitude of the PI-state critical current should be at least as large
in the 3-terminal device as in a comparable 4-terminal device.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Physical Review B Rapid
Communication
Can mesoscopic fluctuations reverse the supercurrent through a disordered Josephson junction?
We calculate the Josephson coupling energy (related to the
supercurrent ) for a disordered normal metal between
two superconductors with a phase difference . We demonstrate that the
symmetry of the scattering matrix of non-interacting quasiparticles in zero
magnetic field implies that has a minimum at . A maximum
(that would lead to a -junction or negative superfluid density) is
excluded for any realization of the disorder.Comment: 2 page
Food neophobia and mealtime food consumption in 4-5 year old children.
Background: Previous research has documented a negative association between maternal report
of child food neophobia and reported frequency of consumption of fruit, vegetables, and meat. This
study aimed to establish whether neophobia is associated with lower intake of these food types in
naturalistic mealtime situations.
Methods: One hundred and nine parents of 4–5 year olds completed questionnaires which
included a six-item version of the Child Food Neophobia Scale (CFNS). The children took part in
a series of 3 test lunch meals at weekly intervals at school at which they were presented with:
chicken, cheese, bread, cheese crackers, chocolate biscuits, grapes and tomatoes or carrot sticks.
Food items served to each child were weighed before and after the meal to assess total intake of
items in four categories: Fruit and vegetables, Protein foods, Starchy foods and Snack foods.
Pearson Product Moment Correlations and independent t tests were performed to examine
associations between scores on the CFNS and consumption during lunches.
Results: Neophobia was associated with lower consumption of fruit and vegetables, protein foods
and total calories, but there was no association with intake of starch or snack foods.
Conclusion: These results support previous research that has suggested that neophobia impacts
differentially on consumption of different food types. Specifically it appears that children who score
highly on the CFNS eat less fruit, vegetables and protein foods than their less neophobic peers.
Attempts to increase intake of fruit, vegetables and protein might usefully incorporate strategies
known to reduce the neophobic response
Thermoelectric effects in superconducting proximity structures
Attaching a superconductor in good contact with a normal metal makes rise to
a proximity effect where the superconducting correlations leak into the normal
metal. An additional contact close to the first one makes it possible to carry
a supercurrent through the metal. Forcing this supercurrent flow along with an
additional quasiparticle current from one or many normal-metal reservoirs makes
rise to many interesting effects. The supercurrent can be used to tune the
local energy distribution function of the electrons. This mechanism also leads
to finite thermoelectric effects even in the presence of electron-hole
symmetry. Here we review these effects and discuss to which extent the existing
observations of thermoelectric effects in metallic samples can be explained
through the use of the dirty-limit quasiclassical theory.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. 374th WE-Heraus seminar: Spin physics of
superconducting heterostructures, Bad Honnef, 200
A theory of \pi/2 superconducting Josephson junctions
We consider theoretically a Josephson junction with a superconducting
critical current density which has a random sign along the junction's surface.
We show that the ground state of the junction corresponds to the phase
difference equal to \pi/2. Such a situation can take place in superconductor-
ferromagnet junction
Nonequilibrium Josephson effect in short-arm diffusive SNS interferometers
We study non-equilibrium Josephson effect and phase-dependent conductance in
three-terminal diffusive interferometers with short arms. We consider strong
proximity effect and investigate an interplay of dissipative and Josephson
currents co-existing within the same proximity region. In junctions with
transparent interfaces, the suppression of the Josephson current appears at
rather large voltage, , and the current vanishes at
. Josephson current inversion becomes possible in junctions with
resistive interfaces, where the inversion occurs within a finite interval of
the applied voltage. Due to the presence of considerably large and
phase-dependent injection current, the critical current measured in a current
biased junction does not coincide with the maximum Josephson current, and
remains finite when the true Josephson current is suppressed. The voltage
dependence of the conductance shows two pronounced peaks, at the bulk gap
energy, and at the proximity gap energy; the phase oscillation of the
conductance exhibits qualitatively different form at small voltage ,
and at large voltage .Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, revised version, to be published in Phys. Rev.
Josephson current in superconductor-ferromagnet structures with a nonhomogeneous magnetization
We calculate the dc Josephson current for two types of
superconductor-ferromagnet (S/F) Josephson junctions. The junction of the first
type is a S/F/S junction. On the basis of the Eilenberger equation, the
Josephson current is calculated for an arbitrary impurity concentration. If the expression for the Josephson critical current is reduced
to that which can be obtained from the Usadel equation ( is the exchange
energy, is the momentum relaxation time). In the opposite limit
the superconducting condensate oscillates with period and
penetrates into the F region over distances of the order of the mean free path
. For this kind of junctions we also calculate in the case when the F
layer presents a nonhomogeneous (spiral) magnetic structure with the period
. It is shown that for not too low temperatures, the -state which
occurs in the case of a homogeneous magnetization (Q=0) may disappear even at
small values of . In this nonhomogeneous case, the superconducting
condensate has a nonzero triplet component and can penetrate into the F layer
over a long distance of the order of . The junction
of the second type consists of two S/F bilayers separated by a thin insulating
film. It is shown that the critical Josephson current depends on the
relative orientation of the effective exchange field of the bilayers. In
the case of an antiparallel orientation, increases with increasing .
We establish also that in the F film deposited on a superconductor, the
Meissner current created by the internal magnetic field may be both diamagnetic
or paramagnetic.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures. To be published in Phys. Rev.
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