Charge sensitivity of single-electron transistor with superconducting electrodes

摘要

The noise-limited charge sensitivity of a single-electron transistor with superconducting electrodes operating near the threshold of quasiparticle tunneling, can be considerably higher than that of a similar transistor made of normal metals or semiconductors. The reason is that the superconducting energy gap, in contrast to the Coulomb blockade, is not smeared by the finite temperature. The same reason leads to the increase of the maximum operation temperature due to superconductivity.