THE PROXIMITY EFFECT BETWEEN SUPERCONDUCTING AND NORMAL THIN FILMS IN ZERO FIELD

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Abstract
The present paper is a review of experiments on the proximity effect between superconducting and normal thin films and contains a rather complete bibliography. Some elementary ideas of the theory of the proximity effect are also discussed. An account is given of the special difficulties encountered in the preparation of proximity effect specimens. The experiments are divided into three classes for the purpose of review : (i) The transition temperature of superconducting-normal superimposed films, (ii) Superconducting-normal-superconducting systems which are able to sustain a non-dissipative current flow, (iii) Tunnelling experiments on binary layers. A comparison of theory and experiment is made throughout. It is concluded that for (i) and (ii) there is fair agreement but that for (iii), both the interpretation of the experimental data and the theoretical calculations of the densities of states are somewhat less satisfactory. Attempts to use proximity effect data to estimate the superconducting interaction parameter in metals where it is very small, such as copper, are discussed and shown to be open to criticism

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