We present electronic transport measurements of a single wall carbon nanotube quantum dot coupled to Nb superconducting contacts. For temperatures comparable to the superconducting gap peculiar transport features are observed inside the Coulomb block
ade and superconducting energy gap regions. The observed temperature dependence can be explained in terms of sequential tunneling processes involving thermally excited quasiparticles. In particular, these new channels give rise to two unusual conductance peaks at zero bias in the vicinity of the charge degeneracy point and allow to determine the degeneracy of the ground states involved in transport. The measurements are in good agreement with model calculations.
We investigate quantum dots in clean single-wall carbon nanotubes with ferromagnetic PdNi-leads in the Kondo regime. In most odd Coulomb valleys the Kondo resonance exhibits a pronounced splitting, which depends on the tunnel coupling to the leads an
d an external magnetic field $B$, and only weakly on gate voltage. Using numerical renormalization group calculations, we demonstrate that all salient features of the data can be understood using a simple model for the magnetic properties of the leads. The magnetoconductance at zero bias and low temperature depends in a universal way on $g mu_B (B-B_c) / k_B T_K$, where $T_K$ is the Kondo temperature and $B_c$ the external field compensating the splitting.
We investigate the magnetic response of a superconducting Nb ring containing a ferromagnetic PdNi Josephson junction and a tunnel junction in parallel. A doubling of the switching frequency is observed within certain intervals of the external magneti
c field. Assuming sinusoidal current-phase relations of both junctions our model of a dc-SQUID embedded within a superconducting ring explains this feature by a sequence of current reversals in the ferromagnetic section of the junction in these field intervals. The switching anomalies are induced by the coupling between the magnetic fluxes in the two superconducting loops.
