Absence of charge backscattering in the nonequilibrium current of normal-superconductor structures

TL;DR

This paper investigates the nonequilibrium transport in normal-superconductor-normal structures, revealing that impurities do not cause backscattering in certain voltage regimes due to the dominance of Andreev transmission.

Contribution

It demonstrates that impurities in the superconductor cannot degrade current in specific voltage regimes because Andreev transmission remains the sole quasiparticle entry mechanism.

Findings

Impurities only cause Andreev reflection, not backscattering, at intermediate voltages.

A gapless superconducting state emerges at higher voltages, sensitive to impurities.

Current conservation leads to nonzero superfluid velocity affecting quasiparticle dispersion.

Abstract

We study the nonequilibrium transport properties of a normal-superconductor-normal structure, focussing on the effect of adding an impurity in the superconducting region. Current conservation requires the superfluid velocity to be nonzero, causing a distortion of the quasiparticle dispersion relation within the superconductor. For weakly reflecting interfaces we find a regime of intermediate voltages in which Andreev transmission is the only permitted mechanism for quasiparticles to enter the superconductor. Impurities in the superconductor can only cause Andreev reflection of these quasiparticles and thus cannot degrade the current. At higher voltages, a state of gapless superconductivity develops which is sensitive to the presence of impurities.