High quality ferromagnetic 0 and pi Josephson tunnel junctions

Abstract

We fabricated high quality $\Nb/\Al_2Ø_3/\Ni_{0.6}\Cu_{0.4}/\Nb$ superconductor-insulator-ferromagnet-superconductor Josephson tunnel junctions. Depending on the thickness of the ferromagnetic $\Ni_{0.6}\Cu_{0.4}$ layer and on the ambient temperature, the junctions were in the 0 or $\pi$ ground state. All junctions have homogeneous interfaces showing almost perfect Fraunhofer patterns. The $\Al_2Ø_3$ tunnel barrier allows to achieve rather low damping, which is desired for many experiments especially in the quantum domain. The McCumber parameter ${\beta }_c$ increases exponentially with decreasing temperature and reaches ${\beta }_c\approx 700$ at $T=2.1\mathrm{K}$. The critical current density in the $\pi$ state was up to $5A/c{\mathrm{m}}^2$ at $T=2.1\mathrm{K}$, resulting in a Josephson penetration depth ${\lambda }_J$ as low as $160\mu \mathrm{m}$. Experimentally determined junction parameters are well described by theory taking into account spin-flip scattering in the $\Ni_{0.6}\Cu_{0.4}$ layer and different transparencies of the interfaces.

Changed content and Corrected typos

References in corpus (4)

• Ground state and bias current induced rearrangement of semifluxons in 0-pi long Josephson junctions
• Quantum tunneling of semifluxons
• Superharmonic Josephson relation at 0-/$\pi$-junction transition
• Controllable plasma energy bands in a 1D crystal of fractional Josephson vortices

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