  We discuss a number of basic physical mechanisms relevant to the formation of
the proximity effect in superconductor/normal metal (SN) systems. Specifically,
we review why the proximity effect sharply discriminates between systems with
integrable and chaotic dynamics, respectively, and how this feature can be
incorporated into theories of SN systems. Turning to less well investigated
terrain, we discuss the impact of quantum diffractive scattering on the
structure of the density of states in the normal region. We consider ballistic
systems weakly disordered by pointlike impurities as a test case and
demonstrate that diffractive processes akin to normal metal weak localization
lead to the formation of a hard spectral gap -- a hallmark of SN systems with
chaotic dynamics. Turning to the more difficult case of clean systems with
chaotic boundary scattering, we argue that semiclassical approaches, based on
classifications in terms of classical trajectories, cannot explain the gap
phenomenon. Employing an alternative formalism based on elements of
quasiclassics and the ballistic $\sigma$-model, we demonstrate that the inverse
of the so-called Ehrenfest time is the relevant energy scale in this context.
We discuss some fundamental difficulties related to the formulation of low
energy theories of mesoscopic chaotic systems in general and how they prevent
us from analysing the gap structure in a rigorous manner. Given these
difficulties, we argue that the proximity effect represents a basic and
challenging test phenomenon for theories of quantum chaotic systems.
