Measurements of the dynamic conductance on SS-and NS-point contacts

Mechanically point contacts made of Ta, Al, Ag (anvil) and of Ta, Ag (needle) were investigated in the temperature range between 4.2 K and 1.3 K and in magnetic fields up to 0.8 T. For point contacts consisting of two superconducting electrodes we measured the current voltage characteristics and also the dynamic conductance. The characteristics with a negative differential conductance and the occurrence of an excess current point to the appearance of Andreev-multiple reflection at an SNS-interface in the contact region.The investigated current voltage characteristics and the dynamic conductance of typical NS-point contacts (Ta–Ag and Ta–Al) point to a microconstriction with a barrier of arbitrary strength at the interface between the normalconductor and the superconductor. We performed theoretical calculations forT=0 and also for temperatures up to the critical temperature using the model of Blonder, Tinkham and Klapwijk (BTK model). In this model the Andreev-reflection is the main scattering mechanism at the NS-interface but also elastic scattering and transmission processes are taken into consideration. The comparison of our theoretical results with the experimental results and also the determined excess current at all investigated point contacts lead to the assumption that there exist metallic contacts with very small barrier strengths at the NS-interface where the Andreev-reflection is the dominant process and the other scattering mechanisms play a subdominant role.