The Detection of Alpha Particles With Superconducting Tunnel Junctions

Abstract
A superconducting thin film tunnel junction (Sn–SnO2–Sn) of total thickness 400 nm, area 7 × 10−4 cm2, and normal (4.2 K) resistance 77 m? was prepared on a glass substrate. When cooled to 1.2 K and suitably electrically and magnetically biased, the junction was bombarded with 5.1 MeV alpha particles. The resulting pulses induced in the tunnel current were observed to have amplitudes up to 19 times the r.m.s. output noise level. The possibility of utilizing this effect in charged particle spectrometry is explored.

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