Josephson effect through a ferromagnetic layer

Abstract:

We report transport measurements on Superconductor/Ferromagnet/Superconductor (S/F/S) junctions: Nb/Al/Gd/Al/Nb where gadolinium (Gd) is a weakly polarized ferromagnet. A sizeable critical current I _c is observed in the I(V) characteristics. This current can be modulated by a weak magnetic field, as expected for a Josephson current. With these experiments, we establish that superconducting coherent transport survives across a small ferromagnetic layer. The penetration depth of Cooper pairs in Gd has been measured. An extensive study of the Josephson critical current in temperature for different thicknesses of magnetic compounds is presented. A comparison of transport measurements with S/N/S junction is given through measurements made on Nb/Al/Y/Al/Nb, where yttrium (Y) is used as non magnetic rare earth metal.