HIGH-ENERGY PHOTON-ABSORPTION IN SUPERCONDUCTORS RESULTS IN BRANCH IMBALANCE POTENTIAL

When a superconductor is disturbed by a high energy deposition, an asy mmetry in the distributions of electron-like and hole-like excitations results. This manifests itself as a voltage output, which can be meas ured in different ways. Here we study the behavior of this quantity us ing the kinetic equations to model the energy cascade. Special attenti on is paid to the similarity and differences between the behaviors of normal metals and superconductors. The particular case of tantalum is considered in the modeling.