Tunnel junction

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (November 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. Please help improve the article with a good introductory style.

A tunnel junction is, in its simplest form, a thin insulating barrier between two conducting electrodes. If the electrodes are superconducting, Cooper pairs with a charge of two elementary charges carry the current. In the case that the electrodes are normalconducting, i.e. neither superconducting nor semiconducting, electrons with a charge of one elementary charge carry the current.

[edit] See also

• Quantum tunnelling
• Ferroelectricity (Ferroelectric tunnel junction)
• Josephson effect (superconduction)
• Coulomb blockade
• Tunnel diode