The propagation of non-equilibrium phonon and quasiparticle signals in bulk single crystal superconducting niobium has been investigated using superconducting tunnel junctions. Excitations generated by pulsed laser light and particle interactions were studied in 2-12 g crystals. At temperatures below 2 K the lifetimes of non-equilibrium phonons were found to be very much shorter that the theoretical bulk anharmonic decay times. Quasiparticle propagation was observed limited by impurity scattering. The proximity effect in Al thin films on Nb single crystal surface was studied. Particle interactions were detected in Nb with both position and energy resolution. The possibilities for using a detector based on superconducting single crystal niobium for a dark matter search are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:334967 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Gaitskell, Richard J. |
| Contributors | Salmon, Graeme L. |
| Publisher | University of Oxford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:68020959-e878-4cd0-89c0-2d33c6b54013 |
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