RESISTIVE TRANSPORT IN A MESOSCOPIC PROXIMITY SUPERCONDUCTOR

We review transport measurements in a normal metal (N) in contact with one or two superconducting (S) islands. From the experiment, we disti nguish the Josephson coupling, the mesoscopic fluctuations and the pro ximity effect. In a loop-shaped N conductor, we observe large h/2e-per iodic magnetoresistance oscillations that decay with temperature T wit h a 1/T power-law. This behaviour is the signature of the long-range c oherence of the low-energy electron pairs induced by the Andreev refle ction at the S interface. At temperature and voltage below the Thoules s energy HBAR D/L(2). We observe the re-entrance of the metallic resis tance. Experimental results agree with the linearized quasiclassical t heory.