Investigation of the electron-phonon interaction in $N{{b}_{3}}Sn$ with the aid of microcontacts

Abstract

The method of microcontact spectroscopy in the superconducting state was used to investigate weak nonlinearities of the current-voltage characteristics of point contacts made of $N{{b}_{3}}Sn$ single crystals. The nature of the spectrum of the electron-phonon interaction was found to vary considerably from contact to contact, indicating considerable deviations of the composition of the surface of $N{{b}_{3}}Sn$ from stoichiometry. A correlation was established between the nature of the spectrum and the magnitude of the gap singularities of the current-voltage characteristics. In the case of "dirty" high-resistance contacts with strong gap singularities the microcontact spectra were reasonably reproducible, which made it possible to relate them sufficiently closely to the microcontact function of the electron-phonon interaction in the bulk material. It was found that microcontact spectroscopy of this interaction was possible in the superconducting state not only in dirty $S-c-S$ contacts, but also in dirty $S-c-N$ contacts.