ELECTRON–HOLE BRANCH IMBALANCE IN SUPERCONDUCTORS INITIATED BY ABSORPTION OF HIGH-ENERGY QUANTA

The creation of quasiparticle branch imbalance in superconductors, when pumped by high-energy quanta, is considered. The physical basis for imbalance creation lies in the geometrical difference between the electron- and hole-like excitation densities of states in momentum space. Simple analytical solutions for distribution functions of electron- and hole-like excitations are derived using appropriately modified kinetic equations. The relevance of results to the problem of high-energy particle detection is discussed.