Patent US 4,334,158

An amplifying or switching superconductive device is described whose current-voltage characteristic is drastically altered by heavy injection of excess energetic quasi-particles. In this device, the superconducting bandgap of a superconducting layer is greatly altered by overinjection of energetic quasi-particles so that the bandgap changes greatly with respect to its thermal equilibrium value, and in most cases is made to vanish. In a preferred embodiment, a three electrode device is fabricated where at least one of the electrodes is a superconductor. Tunnel barriers are located between the electrodes. A first tunnel junction is used to heavily inject energetic quasi-particles into the superconducting electrode to change its superconducting bandgap drastically. In turn, this greatly modifies the current-voltage characteristics of the second tunnel junction. This device can be used to provide logic circuits, or as an amplifier, and has an output sufficiently large that it can drive other similar devices.