Energy gap suppression and instability in superconducting tin films under strong quasiparticle injection

Abstract

Double tunnel junctions have been used to investigate the properties of superconducting Sn films under quasiparticle injection. At high injection level, the gap is discontinuously suppressed to zero from a finite value. This instability for ambient T/sub a/>T/sub lambda/, the lambda temperature of liquid helium, results from the film current exceeding its critical value. Below the instability the general behavior of the gap suppression is shown to be consistent with the modified heating model.