arXiv subjects

R. Seviour

Publications and source records attributed to R. Seviour.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2015

Wakefield acceleration in atmospheric plasmas: a possible source of MeV electrons

Intense electromagnetic pulses interacting with a plasma can create a wake of plasma oscillations. Electrons trapped in such oscillations can be accelerated under certain conditions to very high energies. We study the conditions for the wakefield acceleration to produce MeV electrons in atmospheric plasmas. This mechanism may explain the origin of MeV or runaway electrons needed in the current theories for the production of Terrestrial Gamma ray Flashes.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2013

MICE: the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment. Step I: First Measurement of Emittance with Particle Physics Detectors

The Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) is a strategic R&D project intended to demonstrate the only practical solution to providing high brilliance beams necessary for a neutrino factory or muon collider. MICE is under development at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in the United Kingdom. It comprises a dedicated beamline to generate a range of input muon emittances and momenta, with time-of-flight and Cherenkov detectors to ensure a pure muon beam. The emittance of the incoming beam will be measured in the upstream magnetic spectrometer with a scintillating fiber tracker. A cooling cell will then follow, alternating energy loss in Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) absorbers to RF cavity acceleration. A second spectrometer, identical to the first, and a second muon identification system will measure the outgoing emittance. In the 2010 run at RAL the muon beamline and most detectors were fully commissioned and a first measurement of the emittance of the muon beam with particle physics (time-of-flight) detectors was performed. The analysis of these data was recently completed and is discussed in this paper. Future steps for MICE, where beam emittance and emittance reduction (cooling) are to be measured with greater accuracy, are also presented.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2010

Wave Energy Amplification in a Metamaterial based Traveling Wave Structure

We consider the interaction between a particle beam and a propagating electromagnetic wave in the presence of a metamaterial. We show that the introduction of a metamaterial gives rise to a novel dispersion curve which determines a unique wave particle relationship, via the frequency dependence of the metamaterial and the novel ability of metamaterials to exhibit simultaneous negative permittivity and permeability. Using a modified form of Madey's theorem we find that the novel dispersion of the metamaterial leads to a amplification of the EM wave power.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2000

Transport across a normal-superconducting interface: a novel probe of electron-electron interactions in the normal metal

In this letter, we examine the effect of Coulomb interactions in the normal region of a normal-superconducting (N/S) mesoscopic structure, here the change from an attractive to a repulsive coulombic interaction, at the N/S interface, causes a shift in the order parameter phase. We show that this shift has a pronounced effect on Andreev bound states and demonstrate that the effect on Andreev scattering of non-zero order-parameter tails, can be used to probe the sign of the interaction in the normal region.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2000

Giant thermoemf in multiterminal superconductor/normal metal mesoscopic structures

We considered a mesoscopic superconductor/normal metal (S/N) structure in which the N reservoirs are maintained at different temperatures. It is shown that in the absence of current between the N reservoirs a voltage difference $V_{T}$ arises between the superconducting and normal conductors. The voltage $V_{T}$ oscillates with increasing phase difference $ϕ$ between the superconductors, and its magnitude does not depend on the small parameter $(T/ε_{F}).$

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2000

Phase-coherent effects in multiterminal superconductor/normal metal mesoscopic structures

In this report we analyse three effects which may arise in a mesoscopic multiterminal S/N structure (two normal and two superconducting reservoirs). We show that the Josephson critical current is a non-monotonic function of a voltage between the normal reservoirs. The influence of the spin-polarized electrons on the Josephson critical current was also studied. We show that if there is a temperature difference between the normal reservoirs, a voltage between the superconductors and normal conductors arises which oscillates as the phase difference varies. Its magnitude is much greater than the thermoemf in the case of the ordinary thermoelectric effect.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2000

Suppression and enhancement of the critical current in multiterminal S/N/S mesoscopic structures

We analyse the measured critical current $I_{m\text{}}$ in a mesoscopic 4-terminal S/N/S structure. The current through the S/N interface is shown to consist not only of the Josephson component $I_{c}\sin ϕ,$ but also a phase-coherent part $I_{sg}\cos ϕ$ of the subgap current. The current $I_{m}$ is determined by the both components $I_{c}$ and $I_{sg},$ and depends in a nonmonotonic way on the voltage $V$ between superconductors and normal reservoirs reaching a maximum at $V\cong Δ/e$. The obtained theoretical resultas are in qualitative agreement with recent experimental data.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1999

Anomalous behaviour of S/N mesoscopic structures near T_c

We observe a maximum in the conductance of Aluminum / n-GaAs junctions at temperatures 20 mK lower than the superconducting transition temperature. This is the first observation of a non- monotonic behavior of the conductance near the superconducting transition in superconducting normal junctions. To accommodate this effect we calculate the full temperature dependence of the conductance of these structures, invoking quasiclassical Green's functions in the diffusive limit. In addition to the well-known low temperature peak at temperatures on the order of the Thouless energy, we find a maximum near the critical temperature. This peak has the same origin as the subgap conductance observed in superconducting-normal junctions at low temperatures. Its calculated magnitude and position are in good agreement with our experimental observation.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1999

Infinite magnetoresistance of magnetic multilayers

We examine transport properties of a magnetic superlattice with current perpendicular to the planes. In the limit that the phase-breaking and spin flip scattering lengths are greater than the system size, a multiple-scattering approach is used to calculate the 4-probe conductance. We show that by tuning the strength of tunnel barriers placed between the current and voltage probes giant magnetoresistance ratios of arbitrary strength and size are achievable.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1998

Proximity-induced transport in hybrid mesoscopic normal-superconducting metal structures

Using an approach based on quasiclassical Green's functions we present a theoretical study of transport in mesoscopic S/N structures in the diffusive limit. The subgap conductance in S/N structures with barriers (zero bias and finite bias anomalies) are discused. We also analyse the temperature dependence of the conductance variation $δS(T)$ for a Andreev interferometer. We show that besides the well know low temperature maximum a second maximum near $T_c$ may appear. We present the results of studies on the Josephson effect in 4 terminal S/N/S contacts and on the possible sign reversal of the Josephson critical current.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1998

Anomalous transport in normal-superconducting and ferromagnetic-superconducting nanostructures

We have calculated the temperature dependence of the conductance variation ($δS(T)$) of mesoscopic superconductor normal metal(S/N) structures, in the diffusive regime, analysing both weak and strong proximity effects. We show that in the case of a weak proximity effect there are two peaks in the dependence of $δS(T)$ on temperature. One of them (known from previous studies) corresponds to a temperature $T_1$ of order of the Thouless energy ($ε_{Th}$), and another, newly predicted maximum, occurs at a temperature $T_2$ where the energy gap in the superconductor $Δ(T_2)$ is of order $ε_{Th}$. In the limit $L_ϕ<L$ the temperature $T_1$ is determined by $D \hbar /L^2_ϕ$ ($L_ϕ$ is the phase breaking length), and not $ε_{Th}$. We have also calculated the voltage dependence $ δS(V)$ for a S/F structure (F is a ferromagnet) and predict non-monotonic behaviour at voltages of order the Zeeman splitting.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1998

Conductance suppression in normal metal-superconductor mesoscopic strucutres

Using a scattering matrix approach and quasiclassical Green's function technique, we calculate the conductance of the S/N system (see Fig.1). We establish that the difference between the superconducting and normal state conductance $(\delta G = G_s - G_n)$ is negative for large S/N interface resistances $(R_{S/N})$ and changes sign with decreasing $R_{S/N}$. The comparision of the result obtained with experimental data is carried out.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1997

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

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.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1997

Fluctuation Conductivity in Mesoscopic Superconductor - Normal Metal Contacts

The fluctuation conduction of NSN and SNS contacts above T_c are analyzed. For NSN contacts, both Aslamazov-Larkin and Maki- Thompson corrections to the conduction are found to be of the same order and diverge for T_c^* < T_c according to the law (T - T_c^*)^-1. For SNS contacts, the Aslamazov - Larkin correction vanishes,while the Maki - Thompson correction is essential for contacts shorter than the phase-breaking length.

cond-mat.supr-con↗