Large-scale superconductivity-induced conductance suppression in mesoscopic normal-superconducting structures

Abstract

Experiments on hybrid superconducting normal-metal structures have revealed that even in the absence of tunnel junctions the onset of superconductivity can lead to a decrease in the electrical conductance by an amount many orders of magnitude greater than $e^2/h$. In this Letter we provide a theory of this phenomenon which shows that it originates from an instability in 4 - probe conductance measurements which is absent from 2-probe measurements. We compare the zero-bias,zero-temperature 4-probe conductances $G_{N}$ and $G_{S}$ of a normal diffusive metal in contact with a superconductor in both the normal (N) and superconducting (S) states respectively. In the absence of tunnel barriers, the ensemble average of the difference $δG=G_{S}-G_N$ vanishes, in agreement with quasi-classical theory. However we also predict that there exists macroscopic sample specific fluctuations in $δG$, which lie beyond quasi-classical theory and allow large negative values of $δG$ to occur.