Inhomogeneous state in non-equilibrium superconductor/normal metal tunnel structures: a LOFF-like phase for non-magnetic systems

Abstract

We analyze non-equilibrium states in a tunnel superconductor-normal metal (NSN) structure in the presence of a tunnel current $I$. We use an approximation of an effective temperature $T$ and calculate the current-voltage I-V characteristics. It is shown that the I-V dependence may have an S-shaped form. We determine nonuniform current $I(x)$ and temperature $T(x)$ distributions that arise as a result of instability of the uniform state with negative differential conductance ($dI/dV<0$). We discuss an analogy with equilibrium superconductors with an exchange field in which nonuniform states predicted by Larkin-Ovchinnikov and Fulde-Ferrel are possible.