paper

Coupling of two superconductors through a ferromagnet : evidence for a pi-junction

arXiv:cond-mat/0008364 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.2427

Abstract

We report measurements of the temperature dependence of the critical current in Josephson junctions consisting of conventional superconducting banks of Nb and a weakly ferromagnetic interlayer of a CuNi alloy, with around 0.5. With decreasing temperature generally increases, but for specific thicknesses of the ferromagnetic interlayer, a maximum is found followed by a strong decrease down to zero, after which rises again. Such a sharp cusp can only be explained by assuming that the junction changes from a 0-phase state at high temperatures to a -phase state at low temperatures.

6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRL

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