Dephasing rate and superconducting proximity

Abstract

We show that the maximum penetration depth of the anomalous quasiclassical Green's function from a superconductor into an adjacent normal metal is directly related to the phase relaxation time tau(phi). The latter describes normal-metal phase correlations between two electrons with opposite spins. In the presence of spin-dependent interactions this phase relaxation time differs from the one found in weak localization corrections to the conductivity. The Josephson current measurements in a SINIS-structure could be used to determine tau(phi) experimentally.