Spectral flow in superconducting point contacts

We find that multiple Andreev reflections mediating the transport in superconducting point contacts are strongly affected by a small amount of impurities in the area of the contact. We also argue that the model based on Zener transitions within independent conducting channels is not suitable for kinetic processes in multichannel contacts.Comment: Revised version. To be published in Europhysics Letter

Coulomb-enhanced resonance transmission of quantum SINIS junctions

Coherent charge transfer through a ballistic gated SINIS junction is mediated by the resonant tunneling via the Andreev states. Extra charge accommodated on the Andreev levels partially compensates the charge induced by the gate voltage preserving the electron wavelength and maintaining the resonance conditions in a broad range of gate voltages. As a result, the transparency of the junction as well as the supercurrent trough it can be substantially increased as compared to the zero-Coulomb case