Anomalous Josephson effect controlled by an Abrikosov vortex

Abstract

The possibility of a fast and precise Abrikosov vortex manipulation by a focused laser beam opens the way to create laser-driven Josephson junctions. We theoretically demonstrate that a vortex pinned in the vicinity of the Josephson junction generates an arbitrary ground state phase which can be equal not only to 0 or π but to any desired ϕ 0 value in between. Such ϕ 0 junctions have many peculiar properties and may be effectively controlled by the optically driven Abrikosov vortex. Also we theoretically show that the Josephson junction with the embedded vortex can serve as an ultrafast memory cell operating at sub THz frequencies.