Full Counting Statistics of Andreev Tunneling

Abstract

We employ a single-charge counting technique to measure the full counting statistics of Andreev events in which Cooper pairs are either produced from electrons that are reflected as holes at a superconductor–normal-metal interface or annihilated in the reverse process. The full counting statistics consists of quiet periods with no Andreev processes, interrupted by the tunneling of a single electron that triggers an avalanche of Andreev events giving rise to strongly super-Poissonian distributions.