Subharmonic gap structures and Josephson effect in MgB2/Nb microconstrictions -: art. no. 174518

Superconducting microconstrictions between Nb tips and high-quality MgB2 pellets have been realized by means of a point-contact inset, driven by a micrometric screw. Measurements of the current-voltage characteristics and of the dynamical conductance versus bias have been performed in the temperature range between 4.2 K and 500 K. Above the Nb critical temperature T-C(Nb), the conductance of the MgB2/normal-metal constrictions behaves as predicted by the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk model for low-resistance contacts while high-resistance junctions show quasiparticle tunneling characteristics. Consistently, from the whole set of data we infer the value Delta(pi)=2.5 +/- 0.2 meV for the three-dimensional (3D) gap of MgB2. Below T-C(Nb), low-resistance contacts show Josephson current and subharmonic gap structures, due to multiple Andreev reflections. Simultaneous observations of both features unambiguously indicate a coupling of the 3D band of MgB2 with the Nb superconducting order parameter. We found that the temperature dependence of the Josephson critical current follows the classical Ambegaokar-Baratoff behavior with a value ICRN=(2.1 +/- 0.1) meV at low temperatures.