Two-dimensional Josephson vortex lattice and anomalously slow decay of the Fraunhofer oscillations in a ballistic SNS junction with a warped Fermi surface


Abstract in English

$ $The critical current of a Josephson junction is an oscillatory function of the enclosed magnetic flux $Phi$, because of quantum interference modulated with periodicity $h/2e$. We calculate these Fraunhofer oscillations in a two-dimensional (2D) ballistic superconductor--normal-metal--superconductor (SNS) junction. For a Fermi circle the amplitude of the oscillations decays as $1/Phi$ or faster. If the Fermi circle is strongly warped, as it is on a square lattice near the band center, we find that the amplitude decays slower $propto 1/sqrtPhi$ when the magnetic length $l_m=sqrt{hbar/eB}$ drops below the separation $L$ of the NS interfaces. The crossover to the slow decay of the critical current is accompanied by the appearance of a 2D array of current vortices and antivortices in the normal region, which form a bipartite rectangular lattice with lattice constant $simeq l_m^2/L$. The 2D lattice vanishes for a circular Fermi surface, when only the usual single row of Josephson vortices remains.

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