Funding
EMP is funded through the Horizon2020 programme of the European Commission.
Selected Publications

Magnetic-field-induced stabilization of non-equilibrium superconductivity in a normal-metal/insulator/superconductor junction

J.T. Peltonen, J.T. Muhonen, M.Meschke, N.B. Kopnin, J.P. Pekola

A small magnetic field is found to enhance relaxation processes in a superconductor, thus stabilizing superconductivity in nonequilibrium conditions. In a normal-metal (N)/insulator/superconductor (S) tunnel junction, applying a field of the order of μT leads to significantly improved cooling of the N island by quasiparticle (QP) tunneling. These findings are attributed to faster QP relaxation within the S electrodes as a result of enhanced QP drain through regions with a locally suppressed energy gap due to magnetic vortices in the S leads at some distance from the junction.


Phys. Rev. B 84, 220502(R) (2011)

doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.84.220502