Single-electron transport through the vortex core levels in clean superconductors

TL;DR

This paper develops a microscopic theory for single-electron transport in superconductor-normal-superconductor structures with vortex lines, revealing resonance tunneling via vortex core levels as a key transport mechanism.

Contribution

It introduces a novel microscopic model describing electron transport through vortex core states in clean superconductors, emphasizing resonance tunneling effects.

Findings

Vortex cores act as mesoscopic channels with bound states.

Transport is dominated by resonance tunneling in thin layers.

The theory explains thermal conductance along magnetic fields.

Abstract

We develop a microscopic theory of single-electron transport in N-S-N hybrid structures in the presence of applied magnetic field introducing vortex lines in a superconductor layer. We show that vortex cores in a thick and clean superconducting layer are similar to mesoscopic conducting channels where the bound core states play the role of transverse modes. The transport through not very thick layers is governed by another mechanism, namely by resonance tunneling via vortex core levels. We apply our method to calculation of the thermal conductance along the magnetic field.