PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF THE β-PARTICLE DETECTION WITH SUPERCONDUCTING TUNNEL JUNCTION USING D. C. JOSEPHSON EFFECT

The detection of nuclear particles with superconducting tunnel junctions using D. C. Josephson effect is expected to have the merits of good energy resolution and fast time response. It was the first time to perform such an experiment to detect Sr 90 -Y 90 β-particles by the Nb-NbO x -Pb superconducting tunnel junctions. The results showed that, under the β-particle irradiation, not only the critical current and energy gap voltage of the superconducting tunuel junctions decreased, but also voltage pulse signals at both ends of the superconducting tunnel junction were produced. In this paper we report some phenomena observed about β-particle detection with superconducting tunnel junctions using D. C. Josephson effect.