Dissipative charge transport in diffusive superconducting double-barrier junctions

Journal article, 2011

We solve the coherent multiple Andreev reflection (MAR) problem and calculate current-voltage characteristics (IVCs) for Josephson SINIS junctions, where S are local-equilibrium superconducting reservoirs, I denotes tunnel barriers, and N is a short diffusive normal wire, the length of which is much smaller than the coherence length, and the resistance is much smaller than the resistance of the tunnel barriers. The charge transport regime in such junctions qualitatively depends on a characteristic value gamma = tau(d)Delta of relative phase shifts between the electrons and retroreflected holes accumulated during the dwell time tau(d). In the limit of small electron-hole dephasing gamma << 1, our solution recovers a known formula for a short mesoscopic connector extended to the MAR regime. At large dephasing, the subharmonic gap structure in the IVC scales with gamma(-1), which thus plays the role of an effective tunneling parameter. In this limit, the even gap subharmonics are resonantly enhanced, and the IVC exhibits portions with negative differential resistance.