Femtovolt Measurements of the Superconducting Transition in Tin Whisker Crystals

The onset of the resistive transition of one-dimensional superconductors has been studied with as much as 10 to the -15th power volt sensitivity, at currents as low as 0.000 000 1 ampere. The bahavior in this region is determined by thermodynamic fluctuations of the order parameter. Measurements at...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Newbower,Ronald S
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
CRYOGENICS
ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE
Electricity and Magnetism
GALVANOMETERS
JOSEPHSON JUNCTIONS
MAGNETOMETERS
MEASUREMENT
ORDER PARAMETERS
SINGLE CRYSTALS
Solid State Physics
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY
SUPERCONDUCTORS
Test Facilities, Equipment and Methods
TIN
TRANSITION TEMPERATURE
TUNNELING(ELECTRONICS)
VOLTMETERS
WHISKERS(CRYSTALS)
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Summary:The onset of the resistive transition of one-dimensional superconductors has been studied with as much as 10 to the -15th power volt sensitivity, at currents as low as 0.000 000 1 ampere. The bahavior in this region is determined by thermodynamic fluctuations of the order parameter. Measurements at 0.000 0002A on pure tin, single-crystal whiskers approximately one-half micron in diameter, agree over five decades of resistance change with the explicit predictions of the McCumber-Halperin modification of the Langer-Ambegaokar theory. Extensive development of the technology of Josephson-junction superconducting voltmeters was undertaken in the course of this experiment. A detailed analysis of the practical and fundamental bandwidth and sensitivity limitations of these techniques is given. (Author) Sponsored in part by Contracts N00014-67-A-0298-0031, N00014-67-A-0298-0006 and Grant NSF-GP-11392.