Josephson vortex

  1. Pages with script errors
  2. Pages with broken file links
  3. Articles lacking in-text citations from April 2009
  4. Articles with invalid date parameter in template
  5. All articles lacking in-text citations
  6. Vague or ambiguous time from February 2011
  7. Josephson effect
  8. Vortices


This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2009)

In superconductivity, a Josephson vortex (after Brian Josephson from Cambridge University) is a vortex of supercurrent in a long Josephson junction (LJJ). The supercurrents circulate around the vortex center which is situated inside the Josephson barrier. In contrast to Abrikosov vortices in type-II superconductors, a Josephson vortex has no normal core.

Usually the Josephson vortex's supercurrents create a magnetic field with the total flux equal to \(\Phi_0\)—a single flux quantum. Such a vortex is therefore called a (Josephson) fluxon. It has been shown that under certain conditions a propagating Josephson vortex can initiate another Josephson vortex. This effect is called flux cloning (or fluxon cloning). Although a second vortex appears, this does not violate the conservation of the single flux quantum.

Recently[when?] it was demonstrated by Hilgenkamp et al. that Josephson vortices in the so-called 0-π LJJ can also carry half of the flux quantum, and are called semifluxons.

See also

References

  • Script error


...