Superconducting Proximity Effect on a One-Dimensional Interacting Electron Gas

Abstract

A one-dimensional interacting electron gas (N) in contact with a bulk superconductor (S) is studied theoretically using a bosonization method. We calculate various correlation functions in the case of the complete Andreev reflection at zero temperature. It is found that a tendency towards singlet superconductivity is enhanced in the vicinity of the NS interface, while spin-density-wave correlation is shown to be suppressed. We calculate the conductance of the NS interface in the presence of a barrier potential. This interface conductance shows relatively strong temperature dependence compared with conductance through a single barrier in the absence of the proximity effect. This is a manifestation of interplay between the proximity effect and the mutual interaction.