Interplay of ferromagnetism and triplet superconductivity in a Josephson junction

Boris Kastening

RWTH Aachen, Institute for Theoretical Physics

We consider a triplet superconductor--ferromagnet--triplet superconductor (TFT) Josephson junction, allowing for potential scattering at the barrier and an arbitrary orientation of the ferromagnetic moment. We find that a Josephson current can flow even when there is vanishing phase difference between the superconducting condensates on either side of the barrier. The critical current for a barrier with magnetization parallel to the interface is calculated as a function of the junction parameters, and is found to display strong non-analyticities. Furthermore, the Josephson current switches identified in our previous work are found to be robust features of the junction, while the unconventional temperature-dependence of the current is very sensitive to the extra terms in the barrier Hamiltonian.

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