Anomalous Josephson Effect in S/SO/F/S heterostructures

TL;DR

This paper investigates the anomalous Josephson effect in heterostructures with spin-orbit and ferromagnetic layers, revealing how symmetry breaking and multilayer engineering influence the critical current's behavior.

Contribution

It demonstrates that breaking spin rotation and time reversal symmetry in separate regions induces the anomalous Josephson effect, and proposes multilayer structures to enhance these phenomena.

Findings

Anomalous Josephson effect observed in S/N/S junctions with spin-orbit and ferromagnetic layers.

Breaking symmetries in spatially separated regions is sufficient to induce the effect.

Multilayer engineering can further enhance the anomalous Josephson effect.

Abstract

We study the anomalous Josephson effect, as well as the dependence on the direction of the critical Josephson current, in an S/N/S junction, where the normal part is realized by alternating spin-orbit coupled and ferromagnetic layers. We show that to observe these effects it is sufficient to break spin rotation and time reversal symmetry in spatially separated regions of the junction. Moreover, we discuss how to further improve these effects by engineering multilayers structures with more that one couple of alternating layers.