Superconductivity of Contacts with Interposed Barriers

Abstract

Resistance vs current diagrams and "Diagrams of State" have been obtained for 63 contacts between crossed wires of tin. The wires were plated with various thicknesses of the following metals: copper, silver, gold, chromium, iron, cobalt, nickel, and platinum. The contacts became superconducting, or showed a noticeable decrease of their resistance at lower temperatures if the plated films were not too thick. The limiting thicknesses were about 35×${10}^{-6\mathrm{}}$ cm for Cu, Ag, and Au; 7.5×${10}^{-6\mathrm{}}$ cm for Pt, 4×${10}^{-6\mathrm{}}$ cm for Cr, and less than 2×${10}^{-6\mathrm{}}$ cm for the ferromagnetic metals Fe, Co, and Ni. The investigation was extended to measurements of the resistance of contacts between crossed wires of copper or gold plated with various thicknesses of tin. Simultaneous measurements of the (longitudinal) resistance of the tin-plated gold or copper wires showed that these thin films of tin do not become superconducting for thicknesses below certain minimum values. These latter findings are in agreement with previous measurements at Toronto. The measurements at Toronto usually were believed to be unreliable because films of tin evaporated onto quartz substrates can be superconducting at thicknesses as small as 1.6×${10}^{-6\mathrm{}}$ cm. It is now believed that just as superconducting electrons can drift into an adjoining normal conducting layer and make it superconducting, normal electrons can drift into an adjoining superconducting layer and prevent superconductivity.