We study experimentally nanoscale Josephson junctions and Josephson spin-valves containing strong Ni ferromagnets. We observe that in contrast to junctions, spin valves with the same geometry exhibit anomalous Ic(H) patterns with two peaks separated by a dip. We develop several techniques for in-situ characterization of micromagnetic states in our nano-devices, including magnetoresistance, absolute Josephson fluxometry and First-Order-Reversal-Curves analysis. They reveal a clear correlation of the dip in supercurrent with the antiparallel state of a spin-valve and the peaks with two noncollinear magnetic states, thus providing evidence for generation of spin-triplet superconductivity. A quantitative analysis brings us to a conclusion that the triplet current in out Ni-based spin-valves is approximately three times larger than the conventional singlet supercurrent.

We propose a novel type of magnetic scanning probe sensor, based on a single planar Josephson junction with a magnetic barrier. The planar geometry together with high magnetic permeability of the barrier helps to focus flux in the junction and thus enhance the sensitivity of the sensor. As a result, it may outperform equally sized SQUID both in terms of the magnetic field sensitivity and the spatial resolution in one scanning direction. We fabricate and analyze experimentally sensor prototypes with a superparamagnetic CuNi and a ferromagnetic Ni barrier. We demonstrate that the planar geometry allows easy miniaturization to nm-scale, facilitates an effective utilization of the self-field phenomenon for amplification of sensitivity and a simple implementation of a control line for feed-back operation in a broad dynamic range.

Phase shifter is one of the key elements of quantum electronics. In order to facilitate operation and avoid decoherence, it has to be reconfigurable, persistent, and nondissipative. In this work, we demonstrate prototypes of such devices in which a Josephson phase shift is generated by coreless superconducting vortices. The smallness of the vortex allows a broad-range tunability by nanoscale manipulation of vortices in a micron-size array of vortex traps. We show that a phase shift in a device containing just a few vortex traps can be reconfigured between a large number of quantized states in a broad [−3π, +3π] range.