Incoherent Pair Tunneling as a Probe of the Cuprate Pseudogap

Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106(February 7, 2008)We argue that incoherent pair tunneling in a cuprate superconductor junction with an optimally doped su-perconducting and an underdoped normal lead can be used to detect the presence of pairing correlations in thepseudogap phase of the underdoped lead. We estimate that the junction characteristics most suitable for studyingthe pair tunneling current are close to recently manufactured cuprate tunneling devices.PACS numbers: 74.50.+r, 74.40.+k,74.20.Mn, 74.72.-h