Extremely long-range, high-temperature Josephson coupling across a half-metallic ferromagnet

D. Sanchez-Manzano, S. Mesoraca, F. A. Cuellar, M. Cabero, V. Rouco, G. Orfila, X. Palermo, A. Balan, L. Marcano, A. Sander, M. Rocci, J. Garcia-Barriocanal, F. Gallego, J. Tornos, A. Rivera, F. Mompean, M. Garcia-Hernandez, J. M. Gonzalez-Calbet, C. Leon, S. ValenciaC. Feuillet-Palma, N. Bergeal, A. I. Buzdin, J. Lesueur, Javier E. Villegas, J. Santamaria

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Josephson effect results from the coupling of two superconductors across a spacer such as an insulator, a normal metal or a ferromagnet to yield a phase coherent quantum state. However, in junctions with ferromagnetic spacers, very long-range Josephson effects have remained elusive. Here we demonstrate extremely long-range (micrometric) high-temperature (tens of kelvins) Josephson coupling across the half-metallic manganite La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 combined with the superconducting cuprate YBa2Cu3O7. These planar junctions, in addition to large critical currents, display the hallmarks of Josephson physics, such as critical current oscillations driven by magnetic flux quantization and quantum phase locking effects under microwave excitation (Shapiro steps). The latter display an anomalous doubling of the Josephson frequency predicted by several theories. In addition to its fundamental interest, the marriage between high-temperature, dissipationless quantum coherent transport and full spin polarization brings opportunities for the practical realization of superconducting spintronics, and opens new perspectives for quantum computing.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)188-194
Number of pages7
JournalNature Materials
Volume21
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2022

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© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

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