INVESTIGATION OF PHOTORESPONSE IN PHOTOCONDUCTING SEMICONDUCTOR-SUPERCONDUCTOR MICROSTRUCTURE

In order to investigate the influence of light illumination on the superconductivity proximity effect between superconductor and photoconducting semiconductor, we fabricate mesoscopic devices from a pair of Pb, In, Au multilayer superconducting films on indium-doped Pb1-xSnxTe (x=0.25) photoconducting semiconductor single crystal. We measure the superconducting characteristic of these devices under illumination. In the devices with the gap length of 0.2-0.3 mu m between a pair of the superconductor films, the hysteresis loop in the current-voltage curve is observed, which is a typical characteristic of the Josephson junction. Furthermore the critical current (the point at which resistance increases rapidly) increases with increasing illumination intensity.