2004/05/31 by E. Goldobin, D. Koelle, R. Kleiner · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.70.174519
published as Phys. Rev. B 70, 174519 (2004) · 7 figures, submitted to PRB In v.2 one figure is added, and refs are updated In v.3 major revision, many issues fixed
arxiv created 2004/08/11 · openalex publication_date 2004/11/23 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Half-integer Josephson vortices in 0\text\ensuremath-\ensuremathπ junctions, discussed theoretically and observed experimentally, spontaneously appear at the point where the Josephson phase is \ensuremathπ discontinuous. The creation of arbitrary discontinuities of the Josephson phase has been demonstrated recently. Here we study fractional vortices formed at an arbitrary \ensuremathκ discontinuity and discuss their stability and possible ground states. The two stable states are not mirror symmetric. Furthermore, the possible ground states formed at two \ensuremathκ discontinuities separated by a distance a are investigated, and the energy and regions of stability of each ground state are calculated. We also show that the ground states may strongly depend on the distance a between the discontinuities. There is a crossover distance ac such that for a<ac and for a>ac the ground states may be qualitatively different.