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The 0 and the pi phase Josephson coupling through an insulating barrier with magnetic impurities

O. Vavra, S. Gazi, D. S. Golubovic, I. Vavra, J. Derer, J. Verbeeck, G. Van Tendeloo, V. V. Moshchalkov

cond-mat.supr-conarXiv:cond-mat/0606513

Abstract

We have studied temperature and field dependencies of the critical current IC in the Nb-Fe0.1Si0.9-Nb Josephson junction with tunneling barrier formed by paramagnetic insulator. We demonstrate that in these junctions the co-existence of both the 0 and the π states within one tunnel junction takes place which leads to the appearance of a sharp cusp in the temperature dependence IC(T) similar to the IC(T) cusp found for the 0-π transition in metallic π junctions. This cusp is not related to the 0-π temperature induced transition itself, but is caused by the different temperature dependencies of the opposing 0 and π supercurrents through the barrier.

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